The Good God - Creator
Readings for this week July 29 - August 3
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Day 1 – The Freely Given Gift of Creation
Silence, Stillness and Centering before God (2 minutes)
Scripture Reading – Genesis 1
If, before all things God was eternally a Father, loving the Son, in the Spirit, then God is by nature out-going and life-giving and always has been. God did not give life for the first time when he decided to create; for all eternity he has been life-giving, as that is who he is in his Triune being. Creation was not wrenched from him unwillingly, nor was he compelled to create by some external force or need. God was under no compulsion to create and neither did he need to do so in order to be complete or to compensate for some lack in himself. Creation does not complete him or define him. His love is not reactive, brought forth in response to something outside himself. Creation is simply the freely given, utterly gratuitous act of a God who wants to share himself and the love that is his with others.
It is from the fount of God’s creative love that all things flow. Creation was a free choice born out of a desire to share the goodness of Triune fellowship with others. The love shared by the Triune God was not an inward-looking, insular, selfish love, but a love naturally oriented towards others, to the extent that it was natural for God to look to create in order for his divine love to be shared with and experienced by others, by creation, by us. Creation, the universe, our earth, ourselves and each other – all is a gracious gift of a loving God who desires to share himself, and the love that he is and has, with others.
Question to Consider
What problems arise in our view of God if creation is somehow necessary for him?
Prayer
Lord God, help me see all around me as a gift of love, a sign of your magnificence and munificence towards us. May I see the goodness of you in the goodness of creation. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Conclude with Silence (2 minutes)
Day 2 – The Model of Creation
Silence, Stillness and Centering before God (2 minutes)
Scripture Reading – Colossians 1:15-20
We have seen that God does not need creation, it is not necessary and is not in any way constitutive of his being. It is simply the product of his love, a gift given so that others may know him. From all eternity the Father has always enjoyed loving another (the Son – “you loved me before the creation of the world” as we read last week) and the act of creating others to share in this divinely loving relationship is an entirely appropriate thing for him to do. The God-given purpose of Creation is to extend the love the Father has for the Son outwards so it can be enjoyed by others. The eternal Son, incarnate in Jesus Christ, is the logic for creation, the blueprint for creation, the one through whom all things were created.
As the model for creation, the Son is also the model for how creation and creatures should themselves respond to the Father. Not only did Jesus come to point the way to the Father, show us what the Father is like, and gift us the Spirit that we might know the Father’s love for us; he also showed us what responding in obedient love to the Father’s love looks like. When we look at Jesus, we see God, and we also see how to respond to God lovingly and appropriately. In Jesus we see the God who loves us and the way humans are to respond to that love: with devotion, with praise, with obedience and concern and care for all others made in the image of God. The life and death of Jesus shows us the type of relationship we can have with the Father.
Questions to Consider
How would you describe the way Jesus responded to the Father’s love? What does this show us about our response to God?
Prayer
Heavenly Father, may I know your love more, not for its own sake, but for the sake of others, so that more and more people can experience your love and respond appropriately to your gift. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Conclude with Silence (2 minutes)
Day 3 – Creation is Good
Silence, Stillness and Centering before God (2 minutes)
Scripture Reading – Romans 1:20
‘God saw that it was good.” The good God made a good creation. The God of joy made a universe that he delights in, containing people that he wants to experience the joy of life and of knowing him. Creation is about the outward flow and expression of the love of God. The nature of the Father who loves the Son by and through the Spirit and who calls forth creation as an expression of that love tells us a lot about how we are to view creation. For many throughout history, the created order of matter and physical ‘bodies’ have been something that we should flee from, or that we should ignore, or even that we should disregard and exploit how we wish.
The Triune God is a generous God who makes room for others, and who invites them (us) to enjoy his creative endeavours and even join him in the task of ministering to his creation in a way that enhances it and helps it flourish. This world is the gift of a generous Father who delights in the work of his hands. God looked at his creation and pronounced it ‘good,’ even ‘very good’ once he contemplated it in its totality. God set up the universe the way he wanted it to be – a place of immense variety and wonder, a unified whole, a place where people could enjoy his creation, tend it, and experience all the benefits of a loving relationship with their creator. Creation is God’s freely given gift. Creation matters to God; it should matter to us too.
Questions to Consider
What does the manner of creation tell us about the nature and character of God? Why is this connection important?
Prayer
Gracious God, thank you for the gift of life and for the gift of knowing you. Your love is the reason for our existence and the sustaining force of our lives. We praise your name, Creator God. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Conclude with Silence (2 minutes)
Day 4 – Who is Creation For?
Silence, Stillness and Centering before God (2 minutes)
Scripture Reading – Romans 8:14-17
Creation was a free choice born out of a desire to share the goodness of Triune fellowship with others – a free choice and a free gift. God has always had life and through his work of creation he shares it with us. Creation is often ascribed to the Father as it is born out of the Father’s love, but as we have seen, the Father creates through his Spirit and through the Son, the image of the invisible God… and also for him. Creation is a sign of the love the Father has for the Son. Creation is the Father’s gift to the Son: the Son is the inheritor of creation, the inspiring origin of creation – and also its goal, the beginning and end of creation, the Alpha and Omega described in the book of Revelation.
The Father’s love for the Son has flowed out and has now been shared with us – we are invited to share in the divine love that is the creative and sustaining source of all things. But God’s gift to us does not end there. Because we have been adopted into God’s family – because God calls us his children – we are co-heirs with Christ (Romans 8:17). The Son’s inheritance is also ours. The Father shares his love of the Son with us and invites us to share in the inheritance set aside for the Son. From the garden of Eden to the land of Israel to the entire world. How extraordinary to think that by the Spirit of God we get to share in the Father’s glorious gift to the Son.
Questions to Consider
What evidence does Paul put forward to show that we are children of God? What does the cry “Abba, Father” reveal about our relationship with God?
Prayer
Gracious Lord, may I always remember that I am one of your precious, beloved children – may it become the bedrock of my existence, of how I see myself and how I see others. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Conclude with Silence (2 minutes)
Day 5 – From the Dust
Silence, Stillness and Centering before God (2 minutes)
Scripture Reading – Genesis 2:4-7
We are formed from the dust of the earth. That’s not particularly glamourous: we have our origins in dirt, in the earthiness and reality of brute matter. And we sprang from that which God had already made. We are not made of something special, something new, a special substance formed only for making us. We are made of the same atoms and particles as the rest of creation. The Triune God’s manner of creating us involved tying us so closely to creation that we are made from the same stuff, the same material as everything else. We are embodied, physical beings – but of course, not only physical, made for relationship with God and with others.
We are made from dust and atoms, and the crucial difference is what God did with it. A human figure was formed and then God breathed into its nostrils, breath begetting breath. The breath of life, that animating spark that powers us, came directly from God, breathed into us so that we became living beings. Whatever else we are, we are God’s breathed creation, gifted a part of God’s very essence that we might live in relationship with him and each other and the creation within which he has placed us as his stewards. His breath resides in each of us; he gives us life; the image of God is found in each one of us. We are his living, animated, God-breathed works of art. We are lovingly made products of the eternal love the Father has for the Son, by and through the Spirit.
Question to Consider
What does it say about us that we are made from the same material as creation, but also contain the breath of God within us?
Prayer
Lord God, help us remember our origin in the dust – our intimate connection with your creation; help us remember we carry your divine spark – chosen to show your love to this world. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Conclude with Silence (2 minutes)