Friday Lunchtime

Friday Lunchtime
Genesis 1: 26

We human beings are pretty self-centered creatures. For their Scripture reading, some churches (like mine) use a lectionary, a set list of passages for reading each Sunday, and when we read Genesis 1, we are inclined to jump from the opening verse (the headline) to the creation of human beings. After all, that’s when the creation story gets really interesting, isn’t it, when it starts being about us. But it’s a big jump from verse 1 to verse 26. The chapter is actually five-sixths over before it reaches humanity. God did not think about us until Friday lunchtime (and you know about the cars that are made on Friday afternoon). This balance in Genesis 1 suggests the real importance of the whole created world—the light and sky, lamps and stars, sea and land, vegetation, sea creatures, birds, and land animals. They are not created just for us. They exist in their own right...