Understanding God: Self-Appraisal
And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness. – Genesis 1:4
As we continue to explore the personality of God, one of His unique attributes that we are introduced to early in the Bible is self-appraisal. He is a God who appraises Himself and His works. This theme runs through the history of creation as documented in Genesis chapter 1. We see excerpts such as “And God called the dry land Earth, and the gathering together of the waters He called Seas. And God saw that it was good…” (vs. 10); “And the earth brought forth grass, the herb that yields seed according to its kind, and the tree that yields fruit, whose seed is in itself according to its kind. And God saw that it was good…” (vs. 12); “So God created great sea creatures and every living thing that moves, with which the waters abounded, according to their kind, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good…” (vs. 21).
Now, God was not reporting to anybody, and He did not need to impress anyone in His creation. But because He has such high standards, He took time to evaluate every single one of His works and did not just wave them on. This shows His meticulous nature. He is attentive to detail and does not leave anything to chance. Rather He checks that everything is as He envisioned it to be.
This practice did not just ensure that God came up with a masterpiece in His output, it also helped Him to see the potential for more in some of the things He had created. That was why He could create light out of darkness (2-3); separated day and night from the light (vs. 5-6); created a firmament (Heaven) to separate the waters above and below (vs. 7-8); created the Earth by gathering the waters below the firmament to one side so that hard surface might emerge (vs. 9-10); made sea creatures from the water body below (vs. 21); and brought forth grass, herb, and fruit trees from the new hard surface He created (vs. 11-13). And this went on and on until He formed humans from the same ground.
This tells us that God is inventive and imaginative. He would not have been able to create anything if He wasn’t. He does not rest on His soars and does not bask in yesterday’s glory. He is a forward-thinking God who is always looking out for an opportunity to do more, make more and get more as the evolution of His creation aptly demonstrated to us.
The good news is that He created you just like Him, with the same mindset, capacities and power to think, function and operate like Him. The question is how are you making use of these endowments?
Jesus Loves You!
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