7-12-2015

Good Morning All!!

             Genesis 1:27; “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.”

    God creates man, male and female.  This seems like a simple concept.  God created everything else it would stand to simple reason that God created man and woman.  Yet we see something far more important in the account in Genesis 1.  We see the basic format as to how God created the universe and all that is in it. 

    What we see is that God creates in a complementary fashion.  He creates one thing and he adds to it the complement.  He created light and darkness, day and night.  He created the dry land and the seas.  He created the vegetation, the livestock, birds and sea creatures.  They offer balance and a complementary existence.  It is not that one cannot exist without the other but that the existence of one is enhanced by the existence of the other.  We can see this in a fashion when you see the power of the waves and the solid stance of power by the mountain.  The majesty of both is enhanced by the existence of the other.

    We even use the complementary idea later when Isaiah writes of the wolf dwelling with the lamb and the lion lying with the fattened calf.  The strength and the gentleness existing together for each other to the benefit of each other is part of this idea.  Complementing each other, enhancing each other, drawing from each other to make the existence of all better; the existence of the complement enhances God’s creation and does so by design.  God knew what he was doing; hence he called it good.

     This is what we see in the creation of male and female.  They complement each other.  They are to bring balance and harmony to each other in God’s creation.  One writer put it this way. “The woman was made of a rib out of the side of Adam; not made out of his head to rule over him, nor out of his feet to be trampled upon by him, but out of his side to be equal with him, under his arm to be protected, and near his heart to be beloved.”  They each bring qualities to each other that enhance and celebrate their “togetherness”.  They each bring their own type of strength, their own type of comfort, their own method of showing compassion; each brings something that is good that becomes very good when the two are joined as one. 

    So we see it truly is God’s design.  It is the way that he planned it.  It was not an accident or a chance occurrence and just as we see, over and over again, when we live according to God’s design things run smoother, we have greater contentment and we experience a richer life.

Father of all grace, the intricacies and the wonder of your creation are many times beyond what we can see.  Open our eyes to the beauty of your heavenly design.  Guide us by your Spirit to regard all of your creation as very good.  Lead us to care for and not destroy.  Lead us to love and not hate.  Lead us to build each other so that we may live as your beloved children.  In the precious name of Jesus our risen Savior we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret