“The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters. Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light.” (Genesis 1:2–3, NASB95)

God speaks the Word, the Spirit hovers over “the deep” and the cosmos begins. Looking back, right from the beginning of the Bible, Christians have seen God as three and one. This week we will hear this in the writing of Paul, and in Matthew 28. The first Christians saw it even in the Creation story of Genesis 1. John Chapter 1 picks this up associating Jesus with the words God speaks, and “God” with the Father, and later in the chapter goes on to speak of the Spirit descending on Jesus (1:32).

All this sounds a bit academic, but they show God, not off in heaven but intimately involved in creation. The Spirit moves over us. Jesus the “Word became flesh and lived among us”. As the Word is spoken God (the Father) sees creation as ‘good’ and on the seventh day when all is complete, it is “very good”. This way we experience and understand God as Father, Son and Spirit has profound implications for how we understand creation. God is not only separated from it, in heaven, God is among it and us as the Spirit who moves over and through all creation. God is also part of creation in the Word made flesh. God loves creation or the Cosmos* as John 3:16 calls it and although it is not perfect, God still sees it as very Good, and will one day will set it free from “its bondage to decay” and will “make all things new”.

If this is how God looks at and interacts with us and creation, then how should we look at and interact with creation, ourselves, and each other?

God, we thank you that at one and the same time, you see us from beyond with love, that you move among us in your Spirit and you are one of us in Jesus, help us to see and love ourselves, one-another and all creation as you see them and love them and live our lives in that light. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

The Greek word for "world" in John 3:16 is Kosmos*.

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