THE STORY BEGINS

"The Path" Chapter 1: God Saw That It Was Good

For reading and reflection the week of Oct 1-7, 2018

In the beginning . . . These familiar words open the biblical account of God's love affair with the entirety of creation and humanity. The account is not meant to be scientific, for that would be applying modern standards to our ancestors' observations and understandings of the world. However, might we not credit the ancients with sensing that God's work of creating took place with some logical order and progression? I once knew a bishop who had been trained in the sciences, and he could offer a fairly solid case for seeing within the biblical account support for the modern scientific theory of evolution. Whatever one's view of how the world came into being, we can agree that it is both wonderful and good.

The ancient storytellers also knew that deep within humanity is a rebellious streak: a desire to have things our own way, to compete for resources, and to believe that we can order and control life to our own liking. They knew how this destroyed trust and relationships between themselves, and also put them at odds with the created order itself. And if at odds with the created order, then certainly the relationship with the Creator was strained if not broken.

It had all started so "good," so "very good" indeed, and our place in The Story begins no differently than that of our ancestors. It is for every generation, every person of faith, to reflect on their place within it.