In The Beginning… God

Would you rather listen than read? Listen here.

Conversations At The Ironing Board

When I first started this blog I called it, “Conversations At The Ironing Board.” I hope to one day have a book with the same name. I know you are probably wondering how I came up with the name.

When Sam and I got married, I was very to new to this “church stuff.” I spent a lot of time asking God what I should do as a new pastor’s wife, where I fit in the church, and what He wanted me to do. Several women were quite forthright with what they expected me to do, and it led to a lot of confusion.

He Spoke

One day while ironing, I heard His voice.

I was at the ironing board praying and thinking about the day when I felt in my heart that my thoughts were not my own, but from God. For a time, the only place I ever seemed to hear from God was at that old squeaking ironing board. I think it was because it was the only place I was quiet enough to listen.

The ironing board became the place where I went when I needed to hear from God. I even put a journal at the end of the board so that I could write what He said. From the first moment I knew God spoke, I have been on a journey to find all the ways He speaks. I love searching scripture to study how God speaks and discovering the personal ways He speaks to each of us.

God’s Voice

As we begin this journey through the Bible, I love that it begins with the powerful voice of God. It was with His voice that He put all of creation into place, and it is with that same voice He speaks to us. This thought humbles me to my core. The thought that the creator of all loves me enough to speak to me.

I am a very visual person, for those of you that are not, please stick with me. The first two verses of Genesis one say, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and empty, and darkness covered the deep waters. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters” (Genesis 1:1-2 NLT).

The visual side of me has to stop and ponder this. What do you think this looked like? When I close my eyes and imagine a vast ocean, I try to imagine what it looked like for God to hover over it? I know it has to be a sight even the most visual person could not even come close to fathoming, and that makes this scene even more powerful.

The Trinity

From verse three to the end of chapter one, we see a series of “God said’s.” In each of these statements, the Hebrew word for God is Elohim. Did you know Elohim is a plural word meaning God?

Genesis gives us our first picture of the Trinity. We don’t find the word Trinity anywhere in the Bible, though we receive pictures of the relationship of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit throughout the Bible that gives us the doctrine of the Trinity. Much like Genesis, there are many places that give us a beautiful illusion of a triune God.

Genesis 1:26 is the first place in our English translations that give us this picture. “Then God said, ‘Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us. They will reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth, and the small animals that scurry along the ground’” (NLT)

Later, the New Testament reminds us of this in John 1:1-4. It says God created through the Word and we know the Word to be Jesus.

“In the beginning, the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. He existed in the beginning with God. God created everything through him, and nothing was created except through him. The Word gave life to everything that was created, and his life brought light to everyone.” John 1:1-4 NLT

John confirms in John 1:14 that Jesus is the Word. “So the Word became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son” (NLT).

The Fullness Of God

I love that from the first chapter in the Bible, we can see a full picture of God. He is the creator, and we don’t have to look far to find something truly amazing about His creation.

We know He is a God with multiple attributes, which introduces us to the doctrine of the Trinity.

We know that creation was not complete until He created man, and man was not complete without woman. Matthew Henry says that woman was the crown of creation. He also says regarding the creation of woman, “The woman was made of a rib out of the side of Adam; not made out of his head to rule over him, nor out of his feet to be trampled upon by him, but out of his side to be equal with him, under his arm to be protected, and near his heart to be beloved.”

“The woman was made of a rib out of the side of Adam; not made out of his head to rule over him, nor out of his feet to be trampled upon by him, but out of his side to be equal with him, under his arm to be protected, and near his… Click To Tweet

And It Was Very Good

At the end of chapter one, God looks over all of His creation and said, “It was very good.” He is pleased with His creation.

How does it make you feel that God saw you as part of His creation and said it is very good? Many of us find this hard to accept. I want to challenge you as you read the scriptures to allow God to penetrate your heart and so you can see yourself through His eyes. I pray you will know that the powerful voice of God wants to whisper in your ear and tell you how much He loves you. And I believe with each aspect of creation, He is wooing us to draw us closer to Himself.

”Our duty as Christians is always to keep Heaven in our eye and the Earth under our feet.” ~Matthew Henry Click To Tweet