Creator God

"In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters..."

I have just reread the first chapter of Genesis. Good story. I can feel the wind and imagine God's thoughts as he considered what to make of the world on that first day. But who was there taking notes, and how did the storyteller come up with that fantastic dome over the waters as a notion of the structure of the primal world?

Sketchy natural science aside, there is an implied point of view that escapes notice if we are distracted by everything else happening in those first six days. God is imagined as separate from creation, a transcendent, active subject distinct from the world, which was the passive object of his actions. That point of view frames our picture of the world and our place in it because, as the storyteller says, we are made in God's image. As God's favourites, we too are separate from the world, which is an object made by him for our use. This point of view is so pervasive, we don't even know it is there but language betrays our perspective. We speak of "our air" and "our water" as if we were owners of the planet. The world as we hold it in mind has two main parts, us at the centre and "our environment".

That point of view has consequences. At its best, it calms our fears so we don't give up. Also to it's credit, the story has a moral.  If we are obedient, we avoid problems. Unfortunately, paying attention to what we must not do makes doing it irresistible. As the story progresses, we humans become God's spoiled brats, entitled, disobedient, pampered and profligate, denying ourselves nothing within our grasp. We need an origin story that will take us into the next chapter and beyond with some humility, self-restraint and grace.

What would such a story look like? When the words are found, they will appeal to instinct, emotion, intuition, and reason. They will be as engaging as Harry at Hogworts, and as real and credible as Stephen Hawking's cosmology. They will be refined and polished and refurbished again and again in the retelling, and never crystallize into orthodoxy. They will tell of a God present in everything from its unified beginnings through its explosive fragmentation into particular and unique entities and slow reassembly with infinite variations into bacteria, turnips, ants and people. The story will tell of creation in progress even now after billions of years as the miracle continues, and the indwelling God moves us to participate intentionally in endless becoming.

What would such a story look like? I don't know, but we need to begin telling it before the old one drives us to a tragic and unnecessary end.