by Rev. Kelly Colwell
In the beginning, as you know, before God created any of this, there was just chaos. Moving and shifting, messy and possible, and God brooded over all of that mess, considering options. And the first thing God decided to create was light. God called it by name: “Let there be light!” and the light appeared, and God saw that it was good.
Once there was light, God could see there was a need for some organization, so God created the sky to hold the earth together, and that was good too. And God pulled the waters together to make oceans, lakes, and rivers, and dry land too, recognizing that having different kinds of places was better than one big sameness. And God sprinkled some life into all of it, so that all different kinds of plants sprung up in the water and on the land. “Mmm, that’s Good,” God said.
And God thought, you know what, maybe we should have some markers of time, too, so things are not always the same. So God made the sun to rise and set and mark the days, and the moon to mark the months, and the stars for sparkle, and that was good too.
And God looked over all of it and thought, we need more movement! So God created beautiful and graceful beings that swam through the water and flew through the air. And God saw that they were good, so God told them “You can be fruitful! You can make more of you!”
Looking over the land, God thought to add some creatures that lived there, too–all kinds of walking and running and slithering beings, huge and tiny, all colors and shapes. God nodded. “Now we’re getting there,” God said. “You can make more of you too!”
And we know that the fish and the birds and the animals might tell the story in a different order, but since we are people, we tell it this way: God looked over all those other creatures and saw a gap in the shape of us. So God created people–diverse and fabulous, so different from each other, with the gift of reflecting and organizing and co-creating. “All this,” God said, gesturing out at everything, “is for your joy and your flourishing. Enjoy it, notice it, write poems about it, sing about it.” And God looked out at everything, and God saw that it was very, very good.