Out of Order

Imagine for a moment that you are God (yeah, I know it's a stretch, but bear with me), and you are about to create the heavens and the earth.  Where would you begin?  Would you choose to spread out that creation over a period of seven days, or would you be so eager to see the completion of your work that you would perform the task in a matter of minutes?  After all, how long does it take to say, "Let there be. . ."?

And what about the order of things?  Would you agree that God's order was the best possible one?  Obviously, your first instinct is to say, "Of course, God's order was perfect.  He's God!"  But something that was recently pointed out to me is that God's order (though perfect) can actually appear flawed in the human mind.  For instance, God didn't create the sun, moon and stars until the fourth day, right?  But light was created on day one.  Where did the light come from?  And for all you smarty pants out there who are saying, "Well, the light came from God because He is the light," you are correct, but then that light wouldn't be created, would it?  If God is the light, and He was not created, then the light was not created, right?  But Genesis 1:3 says, And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.   As in, the light was a light that had not been there before.  So, what was the source of the light if not the sun, moon and stars?  Hmmm?

Also, if you think about it even further, you'll see that God created land and plants on the third day.  I'm not a botanist (not even close, just ask all the plants I've killed in my lifetime), but I do know from teaching K-5 science that plants need three things to survive:  soil, water and sunlight.  Um, problem.  The plants were created on day three, but the sun wasn't created until day four.  Do you still think that God's order of creation was perfect when it's obvious that there were some miscalculations?

Right about now, some of you are scratching your heads and thinking, "What in the world?  Where is she going with this?  Is she saying that God messed up?"  Absolutely not!  What I am doing, however, is giving you an example of what we do in our lives without even realizing it.  We question God.  We doubt His methods.  We analyze His order and His timing.  We put ourselves in His place, examine the situation and declare, "This is what I would do differently."

For example, if I were to be given the task of creating the heavens and earth, without having any knowledge of how God did it, I would probably begin with the dividing of the sky and water.  Then I'd create the sun, moon and stars, and after that, light, plants, animals, etc.  But guess what?  I'm not God!  (Big shocker, right?)  Seriously, I don't know why God created the earth in the order that He did, but it seemed to work out just fine, now didn't it?  No, I don't understand it.  It doesn't make sense to me.  But it doesn't have to because I'm not the one in control.  He is!

No matter what you may face this week, remember that the Creator of the universe is working for you.  Don't try to make sense of it.  Don't try to figure it out.  Don't try to be God.  Leave that job to Him.  He's good at it. . .really good.  Just trust that His timing and His order are perfect and leave the results in His hands.  I assure you, you'll be in much better shape than the plants that were placed in my hands.  May they rest in peace!