HOW THE WORLD BEGAN by Helmut Thielicke, (1908 - 1986). Pastor and teacher in Hamburg, Germany during World War II This book has brought me to a better understanding of myself, and everyone I know, and the and whole of the human race. Even the evening news is no longer a mystery! The book is subtitled "Man in the first chapters of the Bible".
My hope is that I will be able capture, in context, short passages of the book which might challenge and provide insights into why Jesus of Nazareth is still so very important in our personal lives and the affairs of the whole human race.
Chapter 3..."The Light of the World"
And God said, "Let there be light", and there was light. And God saw that the light was good; And God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness God called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, one day. Genesis 1:3-
"Many of us, surely, remember the passage of Joseph Haydn's oratorio, 'The Creation,' where the words occur. 'And there was light.' The first three words are sung moderately, but at the word 'light' the orchestra and the choir burst forth in extreme fortissimo, in a wild transport of ecstasy. It is as if the suns and the lights of the cosmos blazed up at one stroke, like a fountain of light ascending to the heavens. 'The world is here, the world is here, for light has come.'
"So the first 'Let there be' rolled through the primeval darkness and out of the formless darkness there rose the contours of structured space. And the great light came from God.
"And God saw that he light was 'BEAUTIFUL' (for this is the literal translation). So the first response the young, dew-fresh creation evoked from the heart of God was joy in the "dew-fresh creation" in its beauty, the rapture of the creator.
"So the Bible begins with a word about beauty. And even before the heavens began to praise the Eternal Majesty, God's own heart was filled with joyful song that there should be something so beautiful arising here in the shimmer of the first light. Above the nascent world lay the serenity of God."
In the last two paragraphs of this first chapter of his book Thielicke wrote, "The great light is already here. The festival of light has already been inaugurated by God for you and for me. We need only to throw open the shutters of our dark house and let in the flooding fulness.
"Otherwise, if we always keep the shutters closed, how should we ever know what God wants to do for us? But the person who plants himself in this light, the person who dares to make the leap from his own dark life will begin to shine himself. He will experience a new form of joy, a joy that will fill his eyes with tears."
So for me the word "beautiful" open a new and marvelous understanding of these first chapters. God's heart being revealed in these words, not just the stagnant dialogues of, "seven 24 hour days" or the meaning of some other time frame. God's heart, for we his creation, has been missing - who ever talks about the heart of God anyway - out of Genesis?
No comments:
Post a Comment