Pursuing God’s Love in the Book of Genesis
When it comes to rock climbing, I’m still a beginner. But I love watching skilled rock climbers scale rocks. They remind me of the importance of courage and commitment, no matter what challenges we’re facing in life. A while back, I remember that I was feeling like I had hit a rock wall with God. I was still carving out time to spend with God each day, reading the scripture, praying, asking God to lead, direct, speak into my life. And all I heard was silence.
When I face times like those in my life, the only thing I know to do is not give up. Stay courageous. Stay committed. Keep pursuing God and his love, even when I feel like I’m struggling to find the next handhold of faith. Well, the weeks rolled into months. And I remember thinking, maybe it’s time to go back to the beginning. I opened my Bible to Genesis 1 and began reading. And for the first time in a long time, I felt that spark of connection with God. I kept reading morning after morning. When I finally finished those 50 chapters of Genesis, I returned to the beginning and read it again. That tiny spark became a steady flame.
The Story of Our Beginnings
It became a year-and-a-half-long personal study of the book of Genesis. Though I had read Genesis many times before, I had never seen God’s love so clearly on display. You see, Genesis is the story of our beginnings. But it’s also the story about the various walls that we keep running into in our lives in our relationship with God, each other, and creation, as well as God’s loving initiative to move us beyond those walls, redeem the world, and bring us back into a right relationship with himself through Jesus Christ. The greatest story you will ever know is the story of God’s love. Genesis reveals that since the beginning of the world, God created you for love.
And we need to be intentional about pursuing God’s love in our lives. Why? Romans 8:39 says that nothing in the sky above or the earth below is able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus. You and I were designed not just to be filled up with God’s love, but to overflow with it. We pursue God’s love not only so we’ll love God more, but so that we’ll love others more, too. Why pursue God’s love? Because it invites us to shift our focus, the way we see ourselves, others, the situations we face, and God.
The Character of God in Creation
I think one of the most significant examples of this is found in the first few chapters of Genesis. Genesis begins, “In the beginning, God.” And I always pause there, because the first few words of Genesis inform us that we are entering into God’s story. God is the hero. This is not our story. Yes, we are invited to be part of it. But this is primarily the story of God. “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” As this chapter unfolds, we get a glimpse of God in creation, hanging the stars in the sky and hovering over the sea. As a holy and divine artist, God paints our world beautiful with the most loving attention to detail. God’s love is displayed throughout creation.
Some people try to read Genesis 1 as if it’s a scientific or a historical document. And while it contains scientific and historic truths, we must never forget that the first chapter of Genesis is primarily a theological document. The author designed it to tell the story of who God is. And we discover that all of creation is dependent on a loving God for both its existence and its subsistence. We learn that God is all-powerful and sovereign, and his work is marked by precision and intimate involvement.
Perspectives on Creation
The second chapter of Genesis offers a second account of creation that’s slightly different. Genesis 2:4. It says that God makes the earth and the heaven. You may be tempted to think, well, maybe the writer just flipped the words. But I think that the writer was intentional. The differences in perspective are notable:
- Genesis 1: The heavens and the earth, is a story of creation from God’s perspective.
- Genesis 2: The earth and the heavens, is a story of creation from man’s perspective.
It’s here where we get to see more of God’s love on display. God forms a man from the dust of the ground and breathes life into him. God places the man in the Garden of Eden with the responsibility to cultivate and keep it. In love, God only gives one limitation. Don’t eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, because the result is death. Even God’s one limitation is founded in his love.