A devotional I wrote to go along with the Genesis 1 creation story.
“In the beginning, God made the heavens and the earth”
Genesis 1:1
From the very beginning, God has been the central actor in all of creation. Unlike creation stories from other ancient Near Eastern people groups, the Bible presents creation not as a gradual and rather unintentional evolution of personified primeval forces, nor as the accidental by-product of warring gods who sprang into being spontaneously from primal materials or even from nothing. Rather, the Bible says that in the beginning there was God and only God. And this God chose intentionally to create all that is. He did so with a plan from the very beginning. God created the atmosphere and the oceans, the sun, moon, and stars, and the cavernous depths of the earth. And then amazingly he populated the earth, oceans, and skies with creatures, beings that – to one degree or another – moved and acted on their own volition. All of this was according to plan, not accidental. At the end of each day God says, “It is good”, not “Oops!”.
This is very important to remember. When the world wants to convince you that everything around you is chaos (just like the setting of an ancient Near Eastern creation myth) and that you are on your own to protect and preserve yourself and your future, remember that God alone is the one who created everything, and he did so with a purpose. We may not always see or understand that purpose, but this is God’s world, not ours. We are but minor characters in a drama whose playwright, director, and starring actor is God. And God is faithful to bring that drama to its intended – and very orderly – conclusion.
Bite-Sized Exegesis 