Beginning — and the Beginner

Genesis 1 • Pastor Dave Atkins

Genesis opens with a clear, direct, and unashamed declaration: “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen. 1:1). Scripture doesn’t argue for God’s existence or bend itself to human opinion — it simply reveals that God is the Creator, and we are His creation. Before anything existed, God already was. He is eternal and has no beginning. Everything else — including us — has a beginning.

In Genesis 1, God speaks, forms, and fills His world with intention and care. He brings light out of darkness and order out of chaos. Nothing in creation is accidental. And at the center of it all, God creates human beings in His image — with dignity, conscience, identity, and purpose. This truth speaks deeply to who we are. In a culture that measures worth by achievement, appearance, or comparison, we are reminded that our value doesn’t come from what we do, but from the God who made us and calls us His own.

But the world God originally made is not the world we live in now. Sin entered the human story and fractured creation, and the result is the brokenness we experience in our relationships, our bodies, our emotions, and our world. But Jesus stepped in. “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). The same Jesus who created all things also holds all things together (Col. 1:17; Heb. 1:3). Christ came to redeem and restore broken lives through His death and resurrection. From Him comes the promise of forgiveness, hope, and new life.

Genesis not only tells us how the world began — it reminds us of what God is still doing today. The God who formed creation is the God who is still forming hearts. The same Jesus who shaped the world is shaping our lives. He meets us in our questions, our uncertainty, and our longing for direction — inviting us not just to understand these truths, but to trust Him with our lives.

My question to you from Genesis 1 is this: What do you think about God? May His truth be a lamp to our feet and a light to our path as we walk with Him in faith in this new year. Amen.