Scripture: Genesis 2:4-25
While the first creation story emphasizes the power of God, the second teaches us of God’s tender care. In this story, God creates by crafting all that is. The story is written in a way that invites us to imagine God as a physical being. We can feel the care as we imagine God collecting dirt in God’s hands and beginning to mold it. With great love, the Divine crafts a human being with all of the care of a potter crafting an exquisite vase. Each detail of the person’s face is God’s creation, each freckle, dimple, and eyelash fashioned by the loving Craftsman. Then perhaps the most wonderful detail: God breathes God’s own holy breath into the person to give him life; that God might have a relationship with him.
God cares so deeply for this person that God creates a whole world for him: a garden full of trees and plants that not only sustain the man, but also that “are pleasing the eye.” The desire is not just for the man to live, but to live abundantly! God invites the man into relationship with all of creation by tasking him with tending the garden. Animals of all shapes and size are created for the man to care for. Finally, another person is made, teaching us that humans are meant to live together. The God of this story is one of tender love and compassion, who desires relationships with all created beings.
Through these two stories, we learn that God is a creator, one who crafts things and brings them into relationship with one another. But creating isn’t just something God does; it is at the heart of who God is! If we look throughout scripture, we find God creating and re-creating and making new and restoring – it’s arguably one of the most prominent themes in our Bible! As author Joel McKerrow writes, “Creation spills from God all over the place as God paints, sings, weaves, dances, sculpts, and writes God’s love across our lives and throughout the world.” How amazing to be a part of the artistic story God is telling!