In the beginning … (Genesis 1:1)
Who is God? So many different answers are given to this question today. For some, God is the principle of order in the universe. For others, he is a lawgiver and judge. Some believe in many gods, and others, in no god at all. Still others say that God is just an idea devised by humans to help us get through life. But here, at the very start of the Bible, we see that God just plain is. He was not created by humans to fill some need. He is not the product of human imagination. He is Lord over all of creation.
In the first line of the Creed, we proclaim, “I believe in one God, the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth.” We announce that God created the entire universe and everything in it. We proclaim that God’s power is so great that he created all of it out of sheer nothingness.
The author of Genesis also proclaimed that God is not like the gods that the people of the ancient Near East made for themselves. Rather, he is the one true God who created all the elements that other religions considered to be gods. Other religions worshipped heavenly bodies, animals, or weather events or sea creatures, but the Jews worshipped the One who made all these things!
Keep this central truth of who God is at the forefront of your mind today. Use it to help you trust that God is above every circumstance you will face, however imposing it may seem. Since God created everything, you can be sure that he has more than enough power to work in your life today. But don’t just stop there. Let the truth of God the Creator convince you that he loves you as well: “God looked at everything he had made, and he found it very good” (Genesis 1:31).
Each and every day, we can place our hope in God our Father. He has the power to save us. And because he loves us, he wants to save us!
“Father, we exalt you as the Creator of all that is. We believe that you love your creation and that you love each of us. Through your Spirit, help us to know you and not to settle for worldly ideas or our own imaginings about you.”
Father Ed Bakker
Anglican Catholic Church / Original Province
Mission of Saint Aidan of Lindisfarne
Bendigo,Australia
