Do you have a favourite book-opening line? One of mine is from my favourite Narnia series book, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader:
“There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it.”
With notable economy and wit, C.S. Lewis prepares us to meet the priggish, personality-challenged Scrubb, a new character in the third installment of the series. Opening lines serve important purposes. Not only do they aim to catch a reader’s attention, they can establish setting, characters, mood, and open us to a new world of the author’s creation.
The opening to our Bible is infinitely profound, yet so simple it is the memory verse for CBC Ilderton toddlers this week.
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
This beginning is not the beginning of a particular time, as we might read of the beginning of a certain king’s reign. It is the beginning, the beginning of all beginnings, and at this beginning … is God. The Bible does not introduce its main character by giving us an origin story, nor does it give an argument for the existence of God. The reality of our eternally existent God is assumed, considered self-evident. And this eternal, self-existing, self-evident God is responsible for everything we see. “Created the heavens and the earth” is another way of saying “God created everything”.
Who and what is God to you? God is uniquely the uncreated one, the only one whose existence is not dependent upon anyone or anything else; but also responsible for all of creation, including you and me! Recognizing and submitting to our dependence upon him for our lives immediately gives us context and perspective.
In our introduction to our CBC Ilderton Bible reading plans I gave a framework for reading scripture that I have found most useful: God in his Word has something for us to see, something for us to understand, something for us to apply, and something for us to praise. I will try to highlight one of these things each day or provide a “Christ Connection”. Today you get both!
Something to See: God is the source of all life!
Christ Connection: John 1:1-4