Genesis 1:1... In the Beginning

This post is from my previous blog, Ear to the Heavens. Enjoy.

"In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth." Genesis 1:1 (KJV)

Heaven and earth is all-encompassing.

The Hebrew word for heaven is "shamayim" which is used for all three definitions of heaven or heavens: the sky and the earth's atmosphere; the stars and all the expanding universe; the dwelling place of God. So, when the scripture says that God created the heaven(s) it means pretty much everything the we imagine exists beyond our physical world: the stars, space dust, the other planets - including anything that exists on those planets - and so on. (I don't want to get too specific as we don't really know for certain what exists out there, but suffice it to say that there is a whole lotta stuff out there.)

In regards to the earth, that includes the animals, the plants, the land, the seas, the sky, all the elements, the electromagnetic fields that hold molecular structures together, and just about everything else you might think of, even man.

In a nutshell, God created everything we know, have yet to know, and ever will know. He alone is responsible for its creation (Genesis 1:1, John 1:3, Col 1:16), its ongoing existence (Col. 1:17), and ultimately, for its destruction (2Pet 3:10, Rev. 21:1).

God existed before He created anything. Everything He created belongs to Him. It is of, by, and for Him and He can do with it as He pleases. We are in no position to question God, to question His acts, or to question His motives. We are one more piece of His creation to do with as He pleases - completely subject to His will.

God owes us nothing.

He has given us everything.

It's important to gain perspective and remember that "I" am not in control. If anything, "I" should tremble in fear and awe of Him and His creation. This is the building block upon which everything I know and do should be built. Then, when I look at the way He desires to know me, to engage with me, to sacrifice for me, I am beyond words. I am silenced by His amazing mercy and unfathomable grace.

"O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! who hast set thy glory above the heavens.
Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger.
When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained;
what is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?
For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honor.
Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet:
all sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field; the fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas.
O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!"- Psalm 8