The Story, Week 1

This story that we are diving into has an abrupt and explosive start that introduces the main character: God. In the beginning…God. It starts by telling us that existence is not an accident, not merely the result of natural laws mysteriously coming into being and chemical reactions accidentally and blindly bringing about humanity. We are here because God wanted us.

The first 2 chapters of the Bible describe God creating and environment for His ultimate creation: people. This account of creation is poetic and amazing on its own. It’s even more amazing when you realize this is all preparation for you; like a parent counting down until a baby is born, getting the room ready, painting the walls, putting the crib together, buying baby clothes, etc. The entire creation account is the description of God doing what needs to be done for us to be.

God’s greatest passion is you. Take a second and think of the most amazing images you ponder in creation. Think of things as huge as galaxies and nebulae to things as small as atoms, protons and quarks. All of this is for you. We’re going to come back to this part, but for now we’ll move on.

From here the story moves to the Fall. One of the details in how God created us is that he gave us free will. The people who put this book together call this part “The Tale of Two Trees.” There is so much that could be said about the fall. Why did they do it? Why did Adam just stand there like an idiot? Is it significant that the very first sin was prompted by wanting to be more like God than we really are?

For time sake, the important truth in this part of the story is that we rebelled. We broke a very simple and wonderful contract. I say we for 2 reasons. First, because Adam was nice enough to give us his sinful nature. Second, even apart from Adam’s nature I’m fairly confident I would have made the same decision. So, WE failed and the 3rd chapter of Genesis has one of the most important transitions in the entire Bible. The entire rest of the Bible is about God’s pursuit to get us back. Even here there are some hints of the extent God will go to in order to have us. God kills innocent animals to make clothes for Adam and Eve. In other words, in order to be right with God after sin innocent blood must be shed.

The sin continues in Cain and as culture develops and cities are built sin increases even more until God has to step in and push the reset button on humanity. The Flood. This did not fix the problem though. It didn’t deal with the sinful nature. God rescued Noah because he genuinely wanted to please God, but Noah took sin on the ark with him.

Now, let’s go back to the creation part. This isn’t part of the prescribed curriculum for The Story, but it’s something I really want to discuss. Go back and think again about all the creation that takes place in the first few chapters. In the first 2 chapters alone there are about 27 references to creative acts by God! At least 6 times during this process God looks around at what’s being created and calls it good. And it is good!!! Think about the galaxies we talked about earlier.




Think about the tiny complexity inside every cell.




Think about the craziest animals you fathom. The shear power and size of an elephant, the stripes of a zebra, the transformation of the butterfly and the absolute absurdity of the duckbilled platypus.



Things get even crazier and more creative in the sea. There are numerous fish that can generate light on their own. The Fangtooth Fish lives at 16,000 feet. The water pressure at this depth is over 8000 psi. The Mimic Octopus can change color instantly, morph its body into unbelievable shapes and impersonate at least 15 other animals.

What’s the point of all this? God made all this. He created it. He imagined it. You hear about singers being influenced by other singers, but God wasn’t influenced by anybody; this is pure creativity. These 2 chapters go on and on about God creating, inventing, imagining and building and it comes to a climax with this phrase, “Let us make man in our image.” We’ve all heard that, but really think about it in its context. God spends 6 days doing nothing but creating and making new things and then says, “I’ll make people in my image.” What is the only image of God we have at this point? A creative God.

Have you ever noticed that the very first event in human history was Adam being invited into the creative process with God by naming the animals? That is literally the first thing we know a human to have done in the Bible; think, imagine, be creative, be original, name. That is truly beautiful.

So, how do we apply this? I want to investigate and develop the creativity in our group. I would love for you guys to share your creative abilities with us. Songs, poems, stories, paintings, photographs, sculptures, blogs, crafts, designs, humor, organization, letters, speeches…anything, share them with us. I’ve already had some tell me they are interested in playing some music for us and another some others who want to share original writings with us. Post them on our page, or figure out when you can share them with us in person. Just share them. Let’s be creative together.