Blessed Sunday morning to you all! Seeing as how it is Sunday morning, I want to give your worship and sense of joyous gratitude a bit of a boost.
As you probably know, I have started my journey through the entire Bible. So… my reading for this weekend has been Genesis 1 – the first creation account. As I read through this passage, I am awestruck at God and His might and ability and infinity. He spoke, and it was. He did not toil or sweat. He did not worry that He might have missed something or could have improved upon His work.
Now… consider this. What did God use to create everything? Where was the plan book? Where was the building material? The simple fact is that God created everything ex nihilo – “out of nothing.” He simply spoke everything into existence. It is the pondering of this that leads me to God’s eternity. Before anything existed, there was God. He has always been, He always will be. Father, Son, Holy Spirit – all ever-present in relationship throughout eternity, three personages, one God, unbound by time, space and material. The Great “I AM,” the One Who does not exist, but is existence itself. Who does not love but is love itself. The source of all, as we will see more clearly in just a few minutes.
Genesis 1 provides us with a very detailed account of God’s creative work. It isn’t a scientific text, but it gives us the facts we need. Light and dark, water and dry land, birds, fish and animals – “everything that moves.” God said, it became, and He proclaimed it good.
But the verses that caught my attention as I read through this were 1:11-12. Here we are, day three, and God is creating plant-life. But… he isn’t just plopping down trees and sprouting up plants and shrubbery. The fact that this wide variety of vegetation produces seed is mentioned four times in these two verses. What is God showing us? He not only created life. He made sure that life continued on. It was fruitful (literally) and multiplied.
Fruit is important in Scripture. Consider this passage from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount:
15 “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. 16 You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? 17 So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. 18 A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Thus you will recognize them by their fruits” (Matthew 7:15-20, ESV).
In the garden, there was no death. There was no disease. No trees suffered plight. No crops were destroyed. It was just fruitfulness. Everything changed after the fall. Thanks to the introduction of sin we have to discern the source before we consume of the fruit.
But we need not concern ourselves with that until chapter 3. For now, ponder God’s perfection and goodness. Praise Him for His abilities! Do you think the God Who created everything – everything – out of nothing, Who positioned the stars and moon and Earth in perfect position, Who centuries later overcame sin and death on a hill outside Jerusalem… do you think He can see you through your circumstances? Remember, God is not only our Creator. He is our Sustainer. The idea of seed points that out.
Think about this the next time you bite into a piece of fruit: you are eating something that is rooted in the garden of Eden. Everything comes from creation. Every plant can be traced back to it’s first seed, just like every human can be traced back to Adam and Eve. Let that thought marinate for awhile and see how it affects your worldview!
God is great, and greatly to be praised! He is that He is. Worship God with all your heart this morning – today and every day!
The Bouville Diarist 