Genesis 1:1-2 (ESV)

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. 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.

There’s no way we can comprehend what a partially created universe was like. Before there was light, was the speed of light established? (Many of the laws of physics depend on the speed of light.) Did gravity exist? Did 2 plus 2 equal 4 yet?

These things are way too wonderful for us to know. But we’re supposed to read the story of creation and try to understand it – even if we know we won’t get it exactly right.

Fortunately, modern man has one tool that gives us a reasonable rendering of God’s view of the earth – a globe. When the Earth was new, it probably didn’t look exactly like a globe (it definitely didn’t have the different countries shown in bright colors).

The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep.

Still, a globe is a useful image of the earth and an appropriate one to use when reading Genesis.

Of course, “without form and void” can mean almost anything. The Earth may not have even been spherical at first. Curiously, this agrees with how cosmologists see creation. They model planetary formation as a gradual coming together of bits as the planet “clears out its neighborhood” (sweeps up all the other bits near it). At first, a planet is pretty lumpy but eventually, all those bits coalesce into a ball.

But it would be a mistake to assume that any specific way of visualizing this is even close to accurate.

We have to be humbled by the sheer size of God’s creation. The surface of the Earth is 197 million square miles. Anyone who has seen one percent of it is a world traveling jet-setter.

And the earth is a tiny dot compared to the solar system. In a scale model of the solar system with the Sun the size of a softball, the Earth would be the size of a grain of sand and Pluto would be a third of a mile away. And the solar system is a tiny dot compared to the Milky Way galaxy, which is a tiny dot compared to the Virgo Supercluster of galaxies, which is …

God, who created it all, actually cares about the tiny two-legged creatures He made in His image. Clearly, our significance is not due to our size.

Today’s prayer is one word – “Wow.” Having a daily prayer time doesn’t mean having a daily agenda. Just spend time with the Lord – enjoying and appreciating Him.

“Awesome” doesn’t even begin to say it.

The weekly study guides, which include discussion questions, are available for download here:

https://www.ailbe.org/resources/itemlist/category/91-deep-studies