Creation – there is a subject in which there has been no shortage of ink spilled over the years. How did we get here? Why are we here? What does it all mean? These are perhaps some of the biggest questions that are often asked when we think about life and our existence. But probably the biggest question that most people have when it comes to the topic of creation is – how long did it take? Did it happen through evolution, or not? Scholars have been discussing these questions for generations and it doesn’t look like there are any signs of the discussion slowing down anytime soon.
But when we look at what the Bible says about creation, and how God made the world, there is one thing that stands out above all else – that God made everything good. In the account of the days of creation in Genesis ch. 1, we see the refrain over and over, that God creates (by speaking, no less) and whatever He says is made “good.” Perhaps most interesting, we see that the pinnacle of his creation – Mankind, is made and called good. They are given work to do – “to be fruitful and to multiply, to have dominion over the animals, and they are called to work by cultivating the ground they have been placed upon – all of which God says “is good.”
But it is not long before we are told in Genesis ch.3, that after giving into temptation, man and woman became corrupt. Sin and death enter into the picture, along with a curse that God places upon the ground, from which Adam came. This curse causes the man and the woman to now suffer in their work, but God doesn’t leave them without the hope of promised redemption. In Genesis 3:15, God promises to provide “the seed of the woman” who will one day come and bring an end to the curse as far as it is found. Generations later, we are told that Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of that promise, and that He has come to bear the sins and the curse of God’s wrath, for all who will trust in Him. And the good news is…if we believe this is true, and that He has come to do this for us, then because of what Jesus has done, God can now look at His children, and say the same thing He said when He created the universe – “it is good.”
