Speak and It's Done

The Genesis 1 account of the Creator God (in the Bible) seems so organized, so structured. When you read other ancient creation myths, like the Babylonian Creation Epic, they are filled with battling gods who destroy as much as they make, and who care very little for our world or its people.

But Genesis 1 is the epitome of calm. God speaks, then whatever he calls into being actually comes into being, then God declares it good, that is, utterly corresponding to what he wanted it to be.

You might think this makes a duller Creator than ancient mythology would normally tolerate, but I think it sets him apart. He's in control. He's organized. Given the utter complexity of every living thing on earth, if God is Creator, then his ability to pull together unbelievably complex phenomena into a flower or a bird or a person is like magic.

This God doesn't spend all his time thoughtlessly fighting with rivals. He doesn't seem to have any rivals. Instead, a world, a universe, is made along the same lines as a brilliant child turns Lego blocks into Battlestar Gallactica, except that this child would have had to create the very atoms out of which each Lego block was formed.

When you're creating the world, chaos doesn't cut it. A God who's utterly in control is what you need.