By Ella Corey

9 And God said, “Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear.” … And God saw that it was good.

11 Then God said, “Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds.” … And God saw that it was good.

14 And God said, “Let there be lights in the vault of the sky to separate the day from the night.” … And God saw that it was good.

20 And God said, “Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the vault of the sky.” … And God saw that it was good.

24 And God said, “Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: the livestock, the creatures that move along the ground, and the wild animals, each according to its kind.” … And God saw that it was good.

Genesis 1:9-24

 

If you’ve attended church before, this story will be very familiar. It’s the creation story. If you are familiar with it, I encourage you not to look over this passage. I find that there is so much to be learned in the story of creation the more I look into it. What’s interesting is it’s the oldest story in the Bible, yet it is so applicable to the way we live our lives today.

In the passage above, there’s a line repeated in every stanza. Hence, I’m inferring that this line is especially meaningful, and the author didn’t want us to miss it. “God saw that it was good.” At this point in time, everything created was untouched by sin and God-breathed, therefore it was all “good”.

In fact, everything in Genesis is considered good until Genesis 2:18:

18 The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone…”


God created Eve to be with Adam so he would no longer be alone.

This should catch us all off guard. Immediately once everything is created something is missing, something– for the first time­– isn’t good.  What is so significant that creation is essentially incomplete without it? What was so vital that God instantly noticed that it was missing?

Community. Life is incomplete if you are not doing it with one-another. For those of you who are extroverts, this is a blessing. But, for some of you, this may seem like a punishment. God created you to communicate with one another, to be with one another, to love and forgive one another. The first time God said something was not right in the world was when man was completely and utterly alone.

With this being said, it is entirely our responsibility to mend and reconcile all relationships. We were created to be in community with each other, so it should be something we do right. That doesn’t mean only spending time healing relationships with those who want to, but working hard to love and reconcile with all people you come in contact with.

We are able to have relationships with others because it reflects our relationship with God. If we pursued every relationship the way God pursues us (or even attempted to) I wonder the difference that we could make. If we lived out in our community, investing in others’ lives as Christ did, would people notice that we were different? If, with every single person, we lived as if we were created to be in community with them, could we heal bonds we considered eternally broken?