In verse 2, the Spirit of God is shown hovering over the face of the waters. I like how The Message puts it. "God's Spirit brooded like a bird above the watery abyss."
To brood: hover, bulk large, loom, dwell, cover, incubate,
hatch, stew, grizzle. The word in the Bible means to "hover above." The idea that comes to mind for me is incubate. It's like a mother who is about to see her own creation--a life that started within her!--come to fruition.
Psalm 139 reflects this idea. "Oh yes, you shaped me first inside, then out; you formed me in my mother's womb. I thank you, High God--you're breathtaking! Body and soul, I am marvelously made! I worship in adoration--what a creation! You know me inside and out, you know every bone in my body; You know exactly how I was made, it by bit, how I was sculpted from nothing into something. Like an open book, you watched me grow from conception to birth; all the stages of my life were spread out before you, The days of my life all prepared before I'd even lived one day" (verses 13-16, The Message).
The earth is made in those six days. God speaks. God made. God saw. God named (some things... earth life he does not name). God blessed (birds and fish, interestingly, and humans). The creation follows a pattern of speaking, making, in some cases naming, and evaluating. The word doesn't say that things were perfect. It says they were good--agreeable, pleasant. After six days, it was emphatically good (still not perfect).
With humans, the plan for their existence is put out there before they are made. They are made in God's image, godlike, reflecting God' nature, male and female. They are given directives after being made, to prosper, reproduce, fill earth, take charge, be responsible. Everything about the creation of human beings shows intentionality and purpose. But I see something else.
Care and concern for the most amazing life made.
The Spirit brooded at the beginning of the story. At the end, God looks over everything he made and calls it very good.
For nine months, two separate times, my wife carried a child inside of her--a nine month incubation period, if you will, before new life emerged. Everything had to be ready before the birth of our children. A room. A crib. Baby-proofing the house. Diapers. Baby food preparers. And that's just the stuff in the house! Inside her, her own body was preparing to give birth and to care for life after it was born. She would give birth with the capability of nourishing that life as long as it was needed.
For nine months she "brooded" over what she couldn't see, as it were. At the end, BOTH of us--mother and father, mommy and daddy--saw that new life and as far as we were concerned, it was VERY GOOD.
I think of the creation week a little differently today. I think of the Spirit brooding over the nothingness that would become the grand "something." I think of God--Father, Son (the Word from the beginning, according to John), and Spirit--looking upon the completed creation and proclaiming it, like new parents almost, VERY GOOD.
We were made with intentionality and purpose. Those ideas are frequently shared and thought about and preached about. Perhaps it's time to also consider, alongside this, the unbelievable and parental care and concern God had for us as the creation formed to not only sustain itself, but to sustain the humanity that would in turn care for it.
This blog is called "Falling in Love Again" (FILA). I'm coming back to it because I am seeking anew the love for God that needs to increase in my life. Today, I fall more in love with Him because of His extreme care and concern and intentionality and purpose for me.
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