Episode Details

Prayer

Heavenly Father, you are light and give light to all creatures. You set the sun in the sky so that we can see, and without this gift we would be in utter darkness. Your manifold gifts beside are wonderful – eyes to see, and all the world full of glories and gifts. So also you are spiritual light, shining into the world through your Son, our Lord Jesus. Without the gift of your Son, so too we would be spiritually blind and destitute. All good gifts come from you, and you have graciously opened our eyes to see you, in spite of the self0inflicted darkness of our own sin. O Lord, you are good beyond all hope. Please meet me now on this new morning, shine forth your light anew into the eyes of my heart. Please lead me in the way everlasting, deliver me from the darkness of the world, the flesh, and the devil. And let me to walk in the light of life this day. Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in your law. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.

Reading

Psalm 19 & John 1.

“The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. 3. And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4. And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. 5. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.” - Genesis 1:2-5

Meditation

Have you ever tried to use a hammer to try and cut wood? Have you ever tried pouring orange juice into your car to see if it works better than petrol? Have you ever tried to paint a masterpiece using mashed banana instead of oil paints? I’m using the ridiculous, of course, to try and make my point obvious, and my point is this: when it comes to getting stuff done, you need the right tools for the job. You need to know the purpose of a thing in order to use that thing properly. Cars are for transport, bricks are for building, pens are for writing, and boats are for sailing.

Keeping that in mind, let’s ask another few questions: Why do you exist? What’s your purpose? Why does the world itself exist? People will live their lives very differently depending on how they answer that question. For some, they seem to think that they exist to make money, and they dedicate their lives to that end. Others dedicate themselves to pursuing pleasures, (basically) saying: “Eat drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die!” Some even say that there is no purpose, and you have to make it up for yourself (they often end up living the same way as the pleasure makers). But what about you, why do you exist?

It’s crucially important that that each one of us ask and answer that question for ourselves. It’s incredibly significant, because if we get it wrong, well, it’s like trying to use a hammer to cut wood, or mashed banana to paint a masterpiece. The difference here is that our lives are on the line. Hammers are for nails, bananas are for eating, and you are for… something.

Genesis 1 is all about foundations, and as we open up day one, what we see on the very first day is the answer to this question of questions: Why do we exist? Why does the world exist? Maybe you haven’t thought about the first day of creation like that before, but as we open it up, that’s exactly what we’re going to see. Our big question in this passage is about the purpose of creation, and you could even say that as day one reveals the purpose of history, it summarises everything else that follows both in the Bible and in history itself.

I know, I’ve made a big claim. Maybe you’ve never heard about day one of creation discussed like this, so it remains for me to take us on that journey. So let me start by asking you a series of questions, and consider for yourself the answers that you might give in your own mind: Why did God create in six days? And why did God