Genesis 1:31
"God saw everything that He had made, and indeed, it was very good.

As I read the Genesis 1 account of creation this week, I noticed something that I had never paid attention to before. As God was speaking the universe into creation, He stopped several times to observe His creation and declared that it was good. In chapter 1, the statement, "And God saw that it was good" is referenced six times. Sometimes I try to become so sophisticated in my head knowledge about God, that I forget the basics: God is good and He sees His creation as good.

This gives me great freedom because I realize that I don't need to have answers for the things in life that I don't understand. God has already said it is good. The statement "God said" is referenced eight times in chapter 1. If God can speak the universe into creation, and He says that it is good, then I will let my evaluation of life be in agreement with what God says.

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"In the beginning....." (Genesis 1:1)
When I left work today I had a plan. I was going to make a quick run to the store, call someone on the way, grab a couple of things, come home, and relax. The universe, it seemed, had another plan for me. Traffic held me up, the phone call I needed to make went longer than I meant for it to and put me in a bad mood, the store was out of the two things I needed, and I came home to find ants in the kitchen again. Over and over, it seemed, I was thinking, "I don't have time for this!"

Who is in charge of your day? Who is in control of your schedule? If I'm honest, I think that I am in charge of all of my time, and it's up to me how it flows and how it is spent.

This is a very egocentric view, though. When I stop to think about it, time exists because God said it would exist. Before God created the universe and the heavens and the earth, He had no use for time. He exists outside of time. The concept of time is solely for our reference, so that we can understand and organize our lives. Sure, time exists for us.....but it does not, for one second, exist because of us. God said that there would be time - day and night and hours and seconds and years - so there was.

If God created time, He can take it away....and He has a purpose for it. God gave me my life - however long it may last - for a purpose, and however much I may try to plan and control it, it does not belong to me. My time belongs to God, and living like it belongs to me is only deception.

Time is a gift from God. He gave us plenty. We just have to use it in the ways He intended and recognize that contrary to what we might think, we are not in control.

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When I hear of all the talk about global warming, I am reminded of how fragile our world is. Sometimes I think that we as a society are a greedy bunch, doing what we want to, without regard for anything or anyone else. In today's "get ahead" society, it seems that things have to always be bigger and better. We need to look no further than shopping centers in this area. How many shopping centers spring up, only to have stores move to newer shopping centers a few years later. The result is empty buildings and vacant, ugly parking lots.

This is one thing that really annoys me. In our haste to keep up with the Joneses, we waste value resources. Forests get chopped down, wildlife gets run out of it's natural habitat, and the natural balance that God created gets thrown out of whack. It is things like this that make me wonder if we realize that we are destroying what God has created. I know that we need progress, but why is so much of this progress so wasteful?

In Genesis 1, God creates the world. He creates the heavens and the earth, light and darkness, and the lands and seas. He created all life. If God created all this, how can we destroy it? We are put on this earth for a short period of time, and we need to do a better job of safeguarding God's creation. I am guilty of thinking that everything that I have worked for is mine, and I can do whatever I want to with it. The truth of the matter is that everything I have--my family, my job, and my abilities are all gifts from God.

I pray that as I grow in my faith, I will strive to be a better steward of God's creation.

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The compelling glow of a full moon on a black, cloudless night...
The orange, pink shades of fading sunlight at dusk....
The crisp orange, gold, and red leaves transforming the autumn landscape...
These are all created by God for us!

There is a planter I decorated for my mother when I was about 7 years old. My mother still has it and, I'm still proud of my handiwork. I have many crafts that my children have made for me over the years; I have tried to keep as many of them as possible because I appreciate each one they made. Each craft shows the love, effort, artistic ability, and patience put in to it by my child.

I think God feels the same way about all that He has created for us. He put love, effort, artistic ability, and patience into all of His creation so that we could truly see how much He loves us.
So next week, as you are driving to or from work, pay attention to the fall foliage or the sun setting and think about how God placed these things in the world for us.
And say thank you.

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