Beginnings

Katy Emslie-Smith June 30, 2024 6 5

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Genesis 1: 1-2 (NIVUK)

1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

The first two verses of the Bible take us into deep time. We are transported to an era when an unrecognisable universe is considered to have undergone an infinitely hot and dense expansion, with all the power and instability of sub-atomic activity organising into massive energy. Against this tumultuous backdrop where huge landmasses would erupt and fuse, break and fold, the Genesis narrative comes with the calm voice of authority — God the creator did this. It speaks of the  nurturing way in which his Spirit protected the process as formlessness took shape, emptiness became filled and light arose from darkness. Parental, progenitor God watched over the beginning of the earth, the Paraclete, our advocate, shading and sheltering, protecting, coaxing life into all of its risk. And present was the Word, knowable God, our friend and elder brother, saviour Jesus, present to it all as by him and through him and in him all things were made. The creation of the world was truly an act of the three in one God.

We live in current times of perma-crisis, with the ever present anxious awareness of how the forces of nature and climate can change to disrupt and destroy human and natural balance. Compassion compels us to act to protect those people at the sharp end of climate change. Care for the natural world motivates us to conserve and protect as we can. Our reassurance lies in the fact that we do this in the company of the creative three in one – in the loving Creator’s power of design and formation, in the loving Spirit’s protection and nurture, and in the loving Saviour’s friendship and intercession. Our times demand a crisis response to climate change on the part of us all, but the peace of the opening verses of Genesis remind us that the Trinity, God three in one, is engaged in creation, still creating, active in sustaining the universe and the world which they brought into being in love.

Prayer:

God, three in one,

Your glory speaks from every corner of the universe,

We join our voice to the song of all creation

To worship you,

Who made all things good.

Amen