There are two accounts of creation in Genesis 1 and 2, told from different viewpoints. Read Genesis 1 carefully several times.
What does this account tell us about God? Think about things like the way He creates; the order in which the earth was formed and filled; the way He blesses; even the simple fact that He created the earth and people at all.
Dear God, I look at the world around me and I don’t immediately think that it is good. There is too much evil, so many acts of senseless violence based on hatred, greed, and selfishness. I look at your creation and cannot help but conclude that something is horribly wrong. Something is wrong, Lord, but it would be a mistake to attribute it to you. Genesis 1 tells us that you love your creation and that it was good when you created it. You created everything for your delight. When it came to sea creatures and birds, you loved them so much that you blessed them and asked them to multiply. You did the same when you created Adam. In addition to the blessing of fertility, you gave Adam dominion over all the creatures of the earth. You loved Adam (which refers to both male and female of the human race according to Genesis 1) so much that you gave Adam dominion over your creation. Adam’s caretaking role was so important that you mentioned it twice: (Gen 1:26 and Gen 1:28). After creating Adam, which represents both men and women, your creation was not just “good,” but “very good.”
You created everything, God, by speaking it aloud. You started with the basics: light from darkness, water and land, plants and then animals. The order of your creation leads me to believe that Adam was your crowning achievement. You blessed animals and Adam to have lots of children.
I am so grateful, Lord, that you led your Church to provide a cathechisis on creation (CCC 282-314). Anyone who wants to understand how the Church interprets God’s creation should read those paragraphs.
What I did not pay attention to before was that you created out of nothing. This appears to be a minor detail; so, it’s quickly read and just as quickly forgotten. But, Lord, you created everything out of nothing. It’s like a rubber ball just suddenly appeared in front of me. You and only you have the power to do that. CCC 299 explains that the order of creation shows your wisdom. Creation by creation, they get more complex. Once you get to Adam, “human understanding, which shares in the light of the divine intellect, can understand what God tells us by means of his creation…” The goodness of creation is something that needs to be defended. All of creation is good because everything came from God, who is all good. We are especially good because we human individuals were created in your image, Lord.
❤