“These are the generations
of the heavens and the earth when they were created,
in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens.”
What does a field of flowers look like? As a bird flying by looking down from above, it would see the yellows and reds and oranges melting together into a canvas picture of beauty and majesty. Colors would swirl and mesh at the borders of the different flowers. Even the green would pop and be appreciated, the “normal” of nature still breathtaking. All in all, it would be a lovely picture of the field! But what if you walked through the field rather than flew over it?
The yellows and reds and oranges and greens would still be there, but instead of a canvas picture seen in totality from above, strokes of the brush are now more evident. Individual flowers can be seen swaying in the wind. The yellow patch gives way to red giving way to orange with a predominant green providing stability to the scene. As the walk through the field continues, there is feeling to the picture now as you touch it, breath it in, and participate in it.
And this is the transition from Genesis 1 to Genesis 2. In Genesis 1 we see creation done! In Genesis 2 we see creation, too. From bird’s eye in the sky to boots walking on the ground, the events are the same. Creation in Genesis 1 is creation in Genesis 2 but from a different view. The words these are the generations are written, but this is not a human genealogy. It is the generations of creation—the heavens and the earth when they were created.
This transition reveals God’s intention. Something more than a beautiful picture is being made. Something more than a creative God is being revealed. And that “something more” provides meaning to humanity and bids us to read on to see what God desires of his creation. God’s creation has been set up, and now he bids us in Genesis 2 to walk amongst the flowers.
“When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,
what is man that you are mindful of him,
and the son of man that you care for him?”