God’s First Act as King of Creation

I’m a believer in the fact that what we do and say first reveals our priorities. If my daughter is crying and fantasy football decisions need to be made, what I choose to do first often reveals what is of greater importance to me.

In Genesis 1 an account is given of God’s creation. Initially God created the Heavens and the Earth themselves. At this point they were kinda a blank canvas of sorts. The Earth was “formless and empty”.

The first thing God did that began to fill that emptiness was to declare “Let there be light.” When He said this, the authority of His voice was received and there was light.

As a child I didn’t see much significance in this statement. God turned on the lights. However when we begin to read the words of Jesus, such as, “This is the verdict: light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed,” (John 3:19-20) we begin to see that the act of turning on the lights is far more than mere procedure.

One implication I see here is that God let His creation see His process: the process of creating the rest of creation. He could have turned on the lights after creation was complete, and He could have done it with a grand “TA-DA!”, but He didn’t. I think we would all feel happy if our government was completely transparent about the results of their governing. However God took it to a whole other level and made His process visible.

When I was in college there was a man who one day walked up to me and asked, “What is wrong with me?”. He had some issues going on. I’m not sure why he approached me in particular, but I spent a few minutes with him. I spent time praying and giving thanks to God. The man spontaneously burst out into tears. I believed that was the Holy Spirit working in his life. I would see him from time to time throughout my years in college.

One day, a few years after we met, he told me there were drug dealers after him and he needed $600 to pay them off. I was on a neatly drawn up budget that my parents had given me, so there wasn’t too much wiggle room, certainly not $600 worth in a single month. I spent a couple days thinking and praying but still had no sense of clarity about what to do. I finally just decided to go with being generous and gave him the money. I was a bit afraid to tell my dad so I told my college pastor. He encouraged me to tell my dad before I found out if I was going to have budget problems that month, not after.

I followed my pastor’s advice. This did a couple of things. Firstly, it held me to a level of accountability that was not purely results oriented. In our modern culture we’ve discovered that, over the long run, taking the right actions is more important than getting the results. As the saying goes, “even a blind squirrel can find an acorn”.

Secondly, it created a level of intimacy between my dad and myself that we wouldn’t have experienced otherwise. I walked through this step of faith and courage with him rather than alone. My dad was clear I’d have to face the consequences of this without him giving me extra money, which I accepted. It actually turned out that my budget was ok because I had some savings and ate less quality food for a bit. Also, the man was able to get away to a smaller city and find a job and a more normal life.

There are many things in our lives that are in process. We’re all in the process of being set free from sin. It’s needed for us to invite a few people into that process. If you don’t know how to break free from pornography or other sin the answer is simple: invite people into your process. You are loved today. You are loved now. You won’t become more loved when you get the result. Invite people into your process. It’s not good to be alone.

God has invited us into His process, not just into believing that He is right because He gets the results. Make no mistake, He gets the results, not only for Himself, but on our behalf as well. However He wants us to be a part of seeing how the results are made. He has nothing to hide, and He doesn’t want to be alone.