God's Grace in Creation

In his youth, four-time Emmy Award winner Mark Burnett saw the Bible as the rulebook of a strict and angry God.  That impression is shared by a lot of people who have a limited familiarity with the Old Testament.  But in time, Burnett, the producer of Survivor and The Celebrity Apprentice, and his wife, Touched by an Angel star Roma Downey, began to understand the Scriptures in a whole different way.  They began to see it as a love story.  In March of 2013 Mark and Roma combined their talents to produce an epic five-week, 10-hour television miniseries on the History Channel, bringing The Bible to life in a striking new way.  Mark explained, "We wanted it to be heartfelt and we wanted it ultimately to be a love story – to tell the Bible from the beginning to the end in a grand, sweeping embrace.” Regardless of whether or not they succeeded in attempting to portray Scripture as a divine romance, they were right.  In truth, the Bible is much more a love story than it is a rulebook.  It is the story of how God embraces His chosen people with His grace and through them offers His grace to all mankind. 

But the grace of God is evident in Scripture long before God singles out Abraham to be the father of His chosen people.  God’s love for mankind is manifest already “in the beginning.”  God begins to disclose His motivation in undertaking the work of creation as early as day four of the creation week.  As on the earlier days, God spoke His creation into existence, but this time also explains the reason He puts the sun, moon and stars in place.  “Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark seasons and days and years, and let them be lights in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth” (Genesis 1:14-15, emphasis mine).  These heavenly bodies were generated by God to serve mankind “as signs to mark seasons and days and years.” That’s why they are described from our point of view as being “in the expanse of the sky.”  God, the author of time, wants us to be able to mark time and to number our days “aright” so that we might grow in wisdom and make the most of the time we have here on earth (Psalm 90:12). 

As He carried out His work of creation, God was careful to put everything in place that was necessary to sustain human life.  The expanse of the sky provided the oxygen required for life, while the requisite liquid water was separated from the dry land so that people would have a place to live and breathe.   God made sure that the plants He created perfectly complemented mankind and the animals.  While we require oxygen for cellular respiration and exhale carbon dioxide, the plants all around us use carbon dioxide, sunlight, water and minerals from the earth to produce the food we need to sustain life, and in the process, release the oxygen that we require.  This perfect symbiosis demonstrates the grace of God in providing for us before He even brought us into being.  God even had us in mind when He created different classes of animals, both “wild animals” to be appreciated for their strength and beauty, and “livestock” or animals that could be readily domesticated and put to use by mankind (Genesis 1:25). 

Mankind is frequently described as "the crown of creation."  As God went about His work of creation He clearly made certain that everything was well prepared for the crown to be put in place.  This is powerful evidence of God's grace and love.

Copyright by the Author.