“Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. “
(John 1: 3)
The whole of creation and everything in creation should have a tag that says, “Made by God.”
This is a very confusing verse – not in its meaning but in its syntax. And as a writer, it drives me crazy! I have surveyed some of the possible versions/translations. The Message neatly avoids the syntax problem by grouping verse three into some of the other verses. As far as I can tell, other versions/translations take a deep breath and then “spit it out” hoping it comes out close to making sense. The Easy-to-Read Version says, “Everything was made through him, and nothing was made without him” and that is okay as long as you do not pause to think about it. And maybe that is part of my problem – I pause to consider the power and impact and get caught up in the muddle-ness of what it is saying.
But it is important stuff and worthy of consideration. God made everything! Humanity may have taken the raw materials they found and added human ingenuity and engineering to create things that look far different than nature/creation, but God created the earth with the source material and humanity with brains that grow, evolve and learn. God was the only one who created all of this; without God there would be no creation and no humanity. It would still be the chaos that everything started from.
May you gentle reader remember where you come from and give honor and glory to our Creator. Selah!
Amen. I am facing that kind of day, where God’s way is still needed among human ingenuity and human ability to create complicated messes.
I look around and see our world, with all its innovations and technology, how we have changed the landscape of our lives literally and figuratively. And I see no place in our world for the God of the Hebrews, Israelites, Jews, and Gentiles of the biblical era. And I think “where have we made room for God?” That is why I think it is so important we allow our view of God to evolve according to the inspiration of the Spirit and become relevant to the world we are in today. That is part of the mission of this blog, to bridge back to the God of the bible and forward to where our world and future is going.
I hope and pray this day and all the days that follow that God shows you the way Jacob. Shalom!
This verse gets to be really fun when you discuss it with kids. “Did God make the houses?” “No, Sweetie, but He made the trees grow and He made the rocks, and He made people’s brains so they would know how to put the house together.”
It is complicated in a beautiful way that makes US a very important piece of the puzzle. As you point out, that also gives us a high level of responsibility. Lovely post.
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