Once upon a time,
Actually, that’s a bit misleading.
Before time began, God was.
Can you conceive of this time before time began? Language wise you cannot.
So let’s start here. This is a story you will not fully get. There will be mystery. But also awe and wonder and all the positive ways of saying your mortal self is too small to contain this story.
But don’t let that stop you from trying.
It’s not inscrutable. This is a story that’s been told. And the sheer telling proves there are parts we can understand.
So if you agree that there are untold parts of the story, then I’ll agree to tell you what’s been told.
Before time began, God was.
Who is God? That’s a great question. For now, God is the creator of all things. He is the ground of all existence. That’s fancy talk for everything that exists exists because of him. There’s nothing real apart from him.
Before time began, God was. At some point, God created heavenly beings. At some point, there was a rebellion. That’s a mostly untold part of the story.1
But then, and here we go—Once upon a time, God created the heavens and the earth.
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Genesis 1:1
The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law. Deuteronomy 29:29
For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. 1 Corinthians 13:9-12
For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. Colossians 1:16-17
- The existence of the serpent in Genesis 3 without any explanation of his origin story is an example of this. ↩︎
No Comments