Did the creation story really happen as the Bible records it?...I think that's the wrong question

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

And God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light.”

            One line in and our adult minds are once more stuck at a crossroads. Is the creation story literal or figurative? As if the answer would destroy God’s credibility. From where I sit on the mountain, my question is, “Does it matter?”

Let us imagine a mother wants to tell her five year old son a bed time story. And the hope of this story is that by the end she will have taught her son the virtue of patience. She can go one of two ways. She can use a story from the past which illustrates patience. Or she can fabricate her own story, which hopefully leads to the same place. Actually, there is a third option, a hybrid of the two. She could tell a true story but with embellished details for dramatic effect. But whichever way she chooses, the hope is that by the end, her son can see and understand the value of patience.

Patience is real!

 

The method she chooses to bring her son to what is real could be a true story or a fictional one. But the end result, patience, is very real indeed.

            Why cannot the creation story adhere to the same line of reasoning? I used to get hung up on the details of the story. Was it really seven, literal days or was that a metaphor for billions of years? If there was nothing in the beginning, how was God hovering over the waters? Did it look exactly as it is described? And people want to tell us that if it did not look exactly the way the story describes, this means that there is no God. What kind of logic is this?

The mother’s goal was to teach her son patience. Patience is real and the entire reason why she was telling the story at all. Does it matter which route she decided to arrive at the end goal?

            The creation story was recorded by an author years after it happened. His goal was for us to know that once upon a time…there was nothing but God. And then, quite unexpectedly and quite amazingly, God said, “Let there be…and there was.” Perhaps he provided poetic details to capture the beauty of God’s artistic nature. Perhaps not. I do not know. Nor do I think it matters.

What does matter is the point the story is trying to make. The goal of this author putting pen to paper was for his reader to know that God created the world, no one else, not a team of gods, not a scientific explosion absent God’s direction; one God, before anything or everything…And that God created, just by speaking.

Let it be you said

What were you thinking?
No, no; you were painting,
Strokes of splendid gold, deepest red,
Of green and blue, the earth’s banner lifted
A tear on your cheek and heart has shifted
Needing nothing, beauty you are
The artist, like dandelions blown, float free
Place the stars
And whisper the waters they foam,
And smash onto land, soaking it dry
Oh so good you say, your eyes drink in the sound
Of angels and animals like billows abound
You are beauty! the tear on your cheek proves,
For your heart is moved, your gaze has shifted
Onto a new place, a new home, from your mind came
Life.

            In regards to days and time, I think very often we ask questions of God, only able to view it from a human and limited perspective. If we viewed the matter from God’s eyes, the situation might appear utterly different. The question may not even be worth voicing. We define a day as twenty four hours. But how does God define a day? Job pressed and pressed for God to answer him. And then God finally did, right on time. And Job was terrified. God has a habit of doing this a bit too much and that makes me suspicious. I start to wonder what effect, if any, time has on God. He seems unconstrained by the linear progression of the clock. He is never dwelling on the past or worrying about the future. I guess he is like a child in that matter.

He just is. He just is in the moment of the story.

That is just like an artist is it not?

            Right now, God, fully satisfied in being, hovering over the waters, in a moment (if we may call it such) of splendid artistic revelation, said, “Let there be light,” And even more miraculous…there was light.

Candle, thou art lit, thy flame divinely moved

Reflected and embraced by hands, your mercies dearly proved
by the saints, I beseech; intercede thy spark is aimed
Target, pray do not miss, for amiss, my soul enflamed,
Yet to bring no warmth to my brother would be the worst jest,
Oh candle, thy dances eternally usher in our rest,
Like the expired tongues of dancing saints. I need
Thy melting grace, mercies dripping and forgiveness breathed.