Scripture and Meditation Genesis 1:1-2:4 (Common English Bible)
Genesis 1:1-5
When God began to create the heavens and the earth— 2 the earth was without shape or form, it was dark over the deep sea, and God’s wind swept over the waters— 3 God said, “Let there be light.”
And so light appeared. 4 God saw how good the light was. God separated the light from the darkness. 5 God named the light Day and the darkness Night.
There was evening and there was morning: the first day.
Meditation Part 1
This story begins in the dark, which I happen to love. I love the dark. I love the sky at night. I love going to sleep in my room after I turn out the lights. It wasn’t always this way. When I was a little girl, I was afraid of the dark. I didn’t like going to sleep in my room at night. Stories and movies had convinced me that the dark could be a scary place. Eventually, my mom found me a nightlight. It looked like a beautiful woman, and she sat on my dresser like a friend. There was still plenty of darkness, but she was my friend until the darkness became my friend, too. This story begins in the dark: God creates light, with just a word: Let there be light! And there is light. But God doesn’t get rid of the dark. We need the darkness. We need it to help us to get enough rest. Dark and light, day and night. We need both.
Genesis 1:6-8
6 God said, “Let there be a dome in the middle of the waters to separate the waters from each other.” 7 God made the dome and separated the waters under the dome from the waters above the dome. And it happened in that way. 8 God named the dome Sky.
There was evening and there was morning: the second day.
Meditation Part 2
Back when people first told this creation story, they believed that the sky was kind of like a great, big invisible shield, holding back all the water. Without a sky, they thought there would be rain all the time! Now, we understand clouds. We understand that there’s always water in the air, and that water gathers together in clouds, and then it rains… which we need, to help everything grow! But that part comes later in this story. Personally, I love God’s design for the sky. Clouds! Color! Always changing, from blue to pink to orange to purple to inky black… even green! God put all the colors of the rainbow in the sky. God made it beautiful.
Genesis 1:9-13
9 God said, “Let the waters under the sky come together into one place so that the dry land can appear.” And that’s what happened. 10 God named the dry land Earth, and he named the gathered waters Seas. God saw how good it was. 11 God said, “Let the earth grow plant life: plants yielding seeds and fruit trees bearing fruit with seeds inside it, each according to its kind throughout the earth.” And that’s what happened. 12 The earth produced plant life: plants yielding seeds, each according to its kind, and trees bearing fruit with seeds inside it, each according to its kind. God saw how good it was.
13 There was evening and there was morning: the third day.
Meditation Part 3
So much stuff is created on this third day! Day one: Light. Day two: Sky. Day three: earth, and plants… plants that re-seed themselves, like the Morning Glories that are coming up in my yard; plants and trees that have fruit, fruit that has seeds in it—oranges, apples, grapes, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, mangoes, bananas… soooo many things. Day three was amazing! Possibly my favorite day so far.
Genesis 1:14-19
14 God said, “Let there be lights in the dome of the sky to separate the day from the night. They will mark events, sacred seasons, days, and years. 15 They will be lights in the dome of the sky to shine on the earth.” And that’s what happened. 16 God made the stars and two great lights: the larger light to rule over the day and the smaller light to rule over the night. 17 God put them in the dome of the sky to shine on the earth, 18 to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. God saw how good it was.
19 There was evening and there was morning: the fourth day.
Meditation Part 4
I see the moon and the moon sees me
And the moon sees the one that I long to see
So God bless the moon and God bless me
And God bless the one that I long to see
OK, the fourth day is pretty great, too. God creates the Sun and the Moon and the Stars—more things I love about the sky! We need the Sun in order for things to grow, and for us to have enough Vitamin D to stay healthy. And the stars are just beautiful, but somewhere else for other planets, they’re suns!
But I want to talk about the moon, which monthly changes in her circl’d orb. The moon has always been the most beautiful and most mysterious heavenly body. It goes through a 28-day cycle, from New Moon (in which we usually can’t see it at all), to Full Moon (when it looks like a complete circle, big and bright). Along the way, it waxes and wanes… “waxes” means it’s getting bigger, and “wanes” means it’s getting smaller.
Of course, the moon isn’t actually changing size. And the moon is always a sphere, like a baseball. (Or a basketball. Or a soccer ball—you can choose!) And it only appears to change shap, because the earth gets between the moon and the sun and blocks the light that lights it up.
The Sun and the Moon both help us to tell time. They help us mark months and seasons and days by how they look in the sky.
But my favorite part of the moon? Wherever I am, and wherever you are, we are looking at the same moon. That’s what the song is about.
I see the moon and the moon sees me
And the moon sees the one that I long to see
So God bless the the one that I long to see
And God bless moon and God bless me
Genesis 1:20-23
20 God said, “Let the waters swarm with living things, and let birds fly above the earth up in the dome of the sky.” 21 God created the great sea animals and all the tiny living things that swarm in the waters, each according to its kind, and all the winged birds, each according to its kind. God saw how good it was. 22 Then God blessed them: “Be fertile and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let the birds multiply on the earth.”
23 There was evening and there was morning: the fifth day.
Meditation Part 5
On the fifth day, God created all the creatures it’s a little hard for us to get to—the birds, most of whom can fly, and the fish and other creatures of the sea… the tiny and large living things that swarm in the waters. All the birds, including the chicken, which is the only bird Jesus ever compared himself to. He said he’d like to be a mother hen, and gather us all under his wings. All fish, including the bass (striped and unstriped). Shellfish. Jellyfish. Even the sea mammals… whales of every kind! And more. Many, many more. And you know what? God blessed them. Every minnow. Every seagull. God blessed all the creatures God had made.
Genesis 1:24-25
24 God said, “Let the earth produce every kind of living thing: livestock, crawling things, and wildlife.” And that’s what happened. 25 God made every kind of wildlife, every kind of livestock, and every kind of creature that crawls on the ground. God saw how good it was.
Meditation Part 6
I’m guessing day six is going to be our favorite.
This is the day God created Dulce and Spartacus and Michael and… well, what’s your puppy’s name? Yes, God created cattle. Yes, God created bears and wolves and badgers and chipmunks. But God also created your beautiful cat Marble, and your sweet boy Olaf. God created the animals that we have come to think of as friends. Companions. The ones who remind us that it’s not just human beings who know how to love. Have you ever had your dog lean her head on your knee when you were crying? Have you ever had your cat snuggle up on your lap so much so that you felt like you just couldn’t move? Have you ever had your dog dance with joy when you took him for a walk?
God created so many ways for us to find love in the world. Our companion animals are among them. And that’s not all.
Genesis 1:26-31
26 Then God said, “Let us make humanity in our image to resemble us so that they may take charge of the fish of the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the earth, and all the crawling things on earth.”
27 God created humanity in God’s own image,
in the divine image God created them,
male and female God created them.
28 God blessed them and said to them, “Be fertile and multiply; fill the earth and master it. Take charge of the fish of the sea, the birds in the sky, and everything crawling on the ground.” 29 Then God said, “I now give to you all the plants on the earth that yield seeds and all the trees whose fruit produces its seeds within it. These will be your food. 30 To all wildlife, to all the birds in the sky, and to everything crawling on the ground—to everything that breathes—I give all the green grasses for food.” And that’s what happened. 31 God saw everything God had made: it was supremely good.
There was evening and there was morning: the sixth day.
Meditation Part 7
Into a world filled with darkness and light; sky and sea and earth; with grass and flowers and fruit trees and redwoods; zucchini and lettuce; a world wondrously lit up by sun and moon and stars; in which geese fly over through the air, through whose seas ancient turtles swim; a world crawling with worms spiders and filled with coyotes and elephants… into a world teeming with life and beauty and variety—diversity!—comes… us. People. Humans. And we are just about as wondrously varied as all the other creatures. Sizes. Shapes. Colors. Who we love. Who we understand ourselves to be. And all these people—every single one—all of us are made in the image and likeness of God.
Now, that doesn’t mean we look like God. But there is a family resemblance. God works hard in creating everything, and we have work to do, too. God creates things—we can too. God does everything out of love—we can too.
Genesis 2:1-4
The heavens and the earth and all who live in them were completed. 2 On the sixth day God completed all the work that God had done, and on the seventh day God rested from all the work that God had done. 3 God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all the work of creation. 4 This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created.
Meditation Part 8
We have work to do. Some of us have schoolwork to do, for another week or two, anyway! Some of us have office work. Some are essential workers. Some of us are church workers!
But all of us have work to do to make our world a better place. To tell with our voices and show by our actions that we take God at God’s holy and creative word, that we believe that all people are made in the image and likeness of God, that each life is precious. We are not there yet. We have work to do.
But don’t forget to rest. Don’t forget to take care of yourself, you wonderful creations—children!—of God. We work—we work hard—and then we rest. And God calls it all Good.
Thanks be to God. Amen.