God Bless! (Reflections on the Creation Story)

“God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good.” (Genesis 1:31)

God bless.

I say that phrase a lot. I tell it to the guy at the toll booth when I cross the Delaware River every morning. I say it to the young girl who hands me my freshly cleaned and pressed black clerical slacks at the dry cleaner. I use it as the closing salutation on my emails. I want you to know that God blesses you. By the dictionary definition, God favors you, endows, you, and desires your joy.

When I looked again at the famous creation story in Genesis 1, I noticed that three times it’s mentioned that God blesses something. God blesses the first creatures to crawl out of the primordial sea (v.22), he blesses human beings when he creates us in his image to be caretakers of the earth (v.28), and he blesses the Sabbath day of rest (Chpt. 2:3).

I think that’s pretty cool, don’t you? I mean, to think that the God of Creation approves of this world, provides for it, and wills its happiness—basically loves this world—is a pretty great way to navigate through our lives.

The Genesis 1 story shouldn’t be looked at as “Creation Science” or “Intelligent Design.” I sure wish the fundamentalists and evangelicals would let that one go. This isn’t a lesson in science, and the veracity of the Scripture doesn’t rest on the literal truth of this narrative. The fact that there’s actually two contradictory creation stories in Genesis should’ve been a clue that this wasn’t to be taken literally. What we have in Genesis 1 is the conviction of Hebrew believers from the 6^th Century BCE about the nature of God’s relationship to our world.

In this narrative, these believers from a polytheistic culture declare that there is only one Creator God. This God—our God—created a world of order and harmony out of chaos. It was a beautiful world, and it was made simply by God’s will, by God speaking it into existence. God loves and blesses it. It is a world where there is no bloodshed as humans and animals are provided for by the plants which grow abundantly for food (v.29-30).

So what’s the big deal here? I find three things which touch me about this story. First, it’s the idea that God blesses creation. He loves it and endows it. If you can’t wrap your brain around that, you’re doomed to live a life of fear of privation. Even as badly as we humans have jacked up this planet, there is still enough food produced to feed every man, woman, and child if we are willing to share it. The problem is not overpopulation but, rather, underdistribution. Faith in God’s blessing can produce generosity and peace. Fear will produce something very different.

Secondly, the writers of the Genesis 1 creation myth believed that God made the universe orderly. There’s a way that it works and a way that it won’t work. If we’re willing to work with it, we can be blessed by it. God has given us the sun and the wind and every plant bearing seed after its kind by which we can power our homes and industry. At Faith Lutheran in Philadelphia we have committed to purchasing only electrical power from renewable sources. The world was not created to have filth poured into the seas and into the air. We can exploit finite resources, but we will pay a penalty for it. (Similarly, we can build a 2000 mile wall along the southern border of the United States, but it won’t keep drugs out of the country. What it will do is interrupt the migratory patterns of many species with the potential of bringing them to extinction!) Genesis calls us to see the order and pattern of the created world, and seek harmony with it.

Finally, the belief that God created the world in order to bless it. God’s blessings are myriad, and God does not stop being good just because we, in our selfish circumstances, fail to recognize his goodness. You may be having a tough day, but you had sky above you, food to eat, and water to drink. Somewhere a kid started his first job. Somewhere two teenagers fell in love. Somewhere a baby has been born. Somewhere an elderly soul has died peacefully after a long and meaningful life.

Belief in God’s presence in creation is not just to assure us of going to Heaven when we die or to give us rules and regulations for our journey through earthly society. Granted, such beliefs are powerful; nevertheless, seeing God in creation as provider and guide can give us a sense of joy in all we encounter daily. We yearn to feel God’s presence and love in all things, and know that he has pronounced it good. In this way, we come alive.

God bless!

PS – If you’re interested in the ecological effects of the proposed border wall, click on WALL  for a link.