Creation: Genesis Chapter 1:1-2:4

“God Loves a Good Fart Joke, and Other Reasons Why the Beginning of Genesis is So Great!”

I am finally getting around to Resolution #6: Reading the entire bible. Like I mentioned before, this will be an ongoing lifetime resolution that I do not want to finish in a year. I intend to take my time and fully digest Gods word. With that being said, here are my thoughts on Genesis Chapter 1:1-2:4:



I love the beginning of Genesis for two main reasons:



One: On the third day God created vegetation, which we all know is very important because without vegetation, there would be no Veggie Tales. Veggie Tales provides parents and children with numerous hours of Christian comedy (something that used to be considered an oxymoron),and without sounding too much like a Veggie Tales promotional blog, I just have to say that Veggie Tales DVD’s have helped make our “No Cable Resolution” possible. I am even considering adding an anti-vegetarian diet to my resolutions list just because I feel guilty now every time I cut into a tomato or a cucumber. But that’s another blog altogether, I’m getting really off track already, didn’t this paragraph start out claiming to be about the book of Genesis?


Ah yes, Genesis and reason number two why the beginning of this book is so great! Genesis gives us a clear description of Gods personality. God has a plethora of admirable qualities and here they are as I see them (wow, I sure do use colons and lists a lot):


-His most obvious personality trait is that he is POWERFUL, he just thought to himself, “I’d like to create an entire universe” and it happened. In my daily life I strive to be like God, but in this instance it is a very good thing that I can never fully achieve this. Having given this amount of power, I would probably use it to create Coach bags, and chocolate desserts. But God uses his infinite power to create the universe, and everything in it, talk about thinking outside the box!


-The next personality trait I get from reading this is that God is very ORGANIZED. This excites me on so many levels! For those of you who know me, or have had to suffer through working, or living with me, you know that I have a functioning case of what the world refers to as obsessive compulsive disorder. I just call it being touched by God, because our creator obviously likes order. He did not create people in the dark and then created the light. He did not put animals in space and then create the earth, he had a plan, a checklist if you will (oh, how I love, love, love a good check list!).


-Which brings me to number 5 on Gods creation checklist: animals, which I interpret as Gods next personality trait: HUMOR. Even if you are not an animal lover, you have to admit that God invented some pretty entertaining creatures. How do you think he came up with the idea for the duck-billed platypus? Did he have some body parts left over and he decided to stick them all together AND decide to make it a walking (or waddling) contradiction? A mammal that lays eggs too? God is funny. Or the skunk, a creature whose entire defense is based on passing gas- yes, folks, even God enjoys a good fart joke. Has anyone else other than me asked God for a sign and then been pooped on by a bird…more than once…in the same day? God could have made birds capable of using toilet facilities but instead he allows them to relieve themselves in mid flight! God was the original comedian, just look around at his creatures and you too will begin to see all the funnies God seasoned the earth with!


-I also love that Genesis shows that God has a healthy SELF-ESTEEM. After every creation he sits back on his golden La-Z-Boy and says “That was good!” What a show off! I love that God makes no excuses for giving himself a pat on the back at the end of every creation. It makes me wish I would have congratulated myself more often in my accomplishments. Even though God is behind every good thing I do, I should still give myself permission to say “Good job!” every so often. As a matter of fact, I am going to start tonight by congratulating myself when I make hamburger helper, only after of course I have humbly thanked God for the food and the ability to hold a spatula with my God-given opposable thumbs.


- God also shows us his GENEROUS spirit in chapter one verse 26 when he makes people. He could have made little worshiping robots, but instead he chose to make mini-me’s. We were created in His own image or in other words, God shared some of his divine qualities with us. Everyday we have the option of choosing God-like qualities. No, we will never be perfect like God, but at least we can try. We can love, create, forgive, work, share, and my favorite, we can have sex. Sex is a great way to be God-like because God’s greatest creation was humans; and the fact that God gave us the ability to make mini- humans and express love at the same time, is very generous.


- And the last character trait that I see in the first part of the Bible (believe me, there are many more traits to come), is that God is a LEADER. This is shown to me in verse four, chapter two, when God rests on the 7th day. Did God need to rest? I don’t think so, he is God, with infinite power and energy, it’s not like his body was aching and he needed to lie down (then again, maybe he did need the rest, knowing it would be the last time he could take a breather before Adam and Eve brought sin into the world and all Hell broke loose, literally). Whether he need a break or not, he still set the example of rest to show us that it is okay for us to work hard, appreciate a job well done, and then rest to refresh ourselves for the work that lies ahead. God is the epitome of a good leader, he leads by example, keeps his promises and is never hypocritical.
That pretty much sums up my thoughts on the beginning off Genesis. For anyone that is reading a long with me, I’d love to hear what you got out of your readings.



F.Y.I: The earthly author of Genesis was probably Moses. He wrote Genesis between 1450-1410 B.C. which is the time period from when Moses lead the Israelites out of Egypt to when he died. The oldest biblical manuscripts of Genesis were found among the Dead Sea Scrolls (a collection of about 900 documents discovered between 1947-1956 in 11 caves in and around the northeast shore of the Dead Sea) , while all the newer copies of Genesis are found among the Codex Sinaiticus, Vaticanus, The Masoretic Text, and the Samaritan and Syriac texts.