“In the Beginning God Created the Heavens and the Earth” and Other Difficult Verses

Theology belongs to the church, and theology leads to worship. And this means that worship includes prayer because it adores and shows reliance on God. Prayer is, therefore, theology put to work. As an example of theology put to work, here is a prayer to God that serves as a form of public worship. In this prayer of adoration, God for being himself and creating all things.

“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen 1:1) What a simple passage but what difficulties. O Lord, you were there and you did create. But what does the beginning mean, when you already were there?

If “in the beginning” you already were, then I can confess the first dogma of theology: You are eternal. You precede time. You started the beginning.

Time measures change. We call one year the even when the earth circles the sun one full time. We can further define this measurement by saying that one rotation of the earth around the sun happens on the three-hundred and sixty-fifth rotation of the earth on its axis.

You put all this into action, God, when you said, “Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to distinguish day and night; and let them be signs and appointed times” (Gen 1:14). Since you have declared them signs, we know that they work according to your meticulous providence. The prophets confirm it (Jer 10:2; Ezek 32:7–8).

The signs in heaven communicate your being, your order, and glory. The heavens declare it (Ps 19). And so let us never look to the sky and say, “Ah, a fiery cloud of gas.” Let us say, “God’s presence shines down from us in the clouds.”

You, the first mover of that which can be moved—you created time since you are above time and change. If this were not so, then you would have a beginning and your servant Moses would have written in futility. But he did not. You already were there when the first movement occurred and time began.

The vestiges of creation not only point to your providence, your invisible attributes, they also bring us closer to you who can speak and it happens. You said, “Let there be light” and it happened, “there was light” (Gen 1:3).

No description of you appears. You are just there above and beyond change and time. Your spirit broods over the waters (Gen 1:2). Is this spirit the breath of your mouth, if we can use our language to speak of you? I do know that when you exhaled you gave existence to man (Gen 2:7). Without your breath, we would have no life.

But it is not the spirit that your servant Moses highlights. It is your word. You spoke; it happened. Your word creates; your spirit gives life. And how can you speak a word without the thought? Or are your thoughts and your words the same thing, since you transcend change, that is, time?

It is small wonder that your servant John said: “In the beginning was the Logos, and the Logos was with God; and the Logos was God. It was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and apart from him nothing came into being which had come into being.” What you hinted at through Moses becomes clear in John because you visited us (John 1:14, 18).

In the beginning was God’s thought and word, the Logos. But the Logos was no mere principle, but a person. The Logos, thought and word of God, was with God. As our thoughts are with us yet are not quite us, so in some mysterious way, the same is true of God. And apart from God’s Logos, nothing would have come into being.

He said a word, “Let there be life,” and the Word he spoke created life. But every word we speak includes a puff of breath. In some non-bodily manner, the same is true for you: for your word of creation also spirated into the body of Adam, granting him life (Gen 2:7).

I have not made it through three verses of the genesis of all things, and I know that I have barely scratched the surface.

Holy Trinity, you who are the beginning, the Word, and Spirit, I love you. Without you, I have no life nor being. And if I have come from you, then I must go to you. Small wonder that the wisest man stated that you placed eternity in our hearts (Ecc 3:11). You put yourself there. We are your image bearers created in finitude who yearn for you, Eternity, our delight and soul’s repose.

Bring me to you; bring your kingdom to earth. Let your will be done. And make my soul’s union with you complete. For in your light, I see light “For with you is the fountain of life” (Ps 36:9).