The scriptural content for this post is found in Genesis 1:1-3
The above scriptures is one of the most widely known and important in the Bible for it is here at the beginning that God establishes His relationship as creator to everything seen and unseen. If we allow the idea that God is creator to fully form in our minds we will begin to understand God’s nature, purposes and relationship to all of us.
If we think of examples of human creativity like an artist creating a great work of art, a businessman launching a great corporation or a statesman crafting a great society we immediately understand that their relationship to what they have created is not a passive one but is passionate, intimate and protective. It is a fundamental truth that any creator is in relationship with his creation from the very beginning. God is no less a passionate personal creator and can be truly understood only through the lens of relationship. God is so far beyond our capacity for intellectual comprehension that no amount of study of the nature of God or mental acquiescence to the existence of God will allow us to even begin to understand him. God can only begin to be known through the reality of a relationship and any attempt to understand God outside of relationship is false and empty exercise.
One reason many of us may fail to realize the full nature of this relationship expressed in scripture is that the English word used throughout the translations of the Bible to describe this relationship is love. Words represent ideas and the biblical idea represented by the word love in English, and its equivalent in many other languages, has been all but eradicated in the minds of human beings. The idea behind the word love has been so twisted and watered down by inconsistent application and overuse that it is no longer adequate to convey the biblical idea intended. The correct idea represented by the word love is crucial to any understanding of God’s relationship with humanity as well as an understanding of the origin and nature of humanity itself.
Fortunately the bible is saturated with examples and principles that reveal the nature of God’s relationship with us. So, we will develop our biblical idea of love, not through the reading of a quoted definition of an abstract concept, but through our close reading of the creation story and the relationship revealed there. In Genesis we will see God’s love unfold as passionate creator and not rely on abstract definitions of love that could differ in shades of meaning from person to person.