“In the beginning God made heaven and earth” (Genesis 1:1).

That verse contains so much for some and so little for others. For folks like myself, it explains how everything began. It is even more significant for us Orthodox reciters of the Nicene Creed that reads at its beginning:

I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth and of all things visible and invisible.

We believe God made it all.

That one verse in Genesis sends my mind reeling into places that I can remain for long parts of many days. It causes me to think of an eternal God, two words that give me a glimpse of a horizon over which there is Something I have no real idea about nor the capability to fully understand. What is eternity? Who can honestly tell me they fully understand that which has always been and shall be? I do not dare begin to think I can comprehend it. And yet somehow something in me gets the gist of what eternity is. I can say it to you in a conversation and you will not only understand the definition of the word, but you will understand how that word allows us to transcend, if ever so minutely, where we are in the present.

Then there is God. He is the I Am. He is not like me nor is he like the most magnificent thing I could imagine imagining. What He is only He can be. Nevertheless, something in me can comprehend that Something that is way beyond who I am. Wonderfully, and mercifully through His grace, I can easily see the greatness of me and every other human being on the planet compared to any other living creature.  Even in a withered and frail form a man can be great (e.g. Stephen Hawking, Franklin D. Roosevelt). Not so in the animal kingdom. Therefore it is quite easy for me to see that I am made in the image of God. The eternal God who is the cause of there being a beginning at all.

Then there are some to whom that glorious verse means little or nothing at all. They want more they say. Or so they think. They want the full story of how it all came to be. They want scientific explanations for they whys of life. It causes me to wonder whether or not they understand what they are asking. Do they realize that Almighty God condescends to speak to us through the limits of scientific explanation, much less whatever audible language we speak? God has spoken to us throughout all of creation in a language we seemingly ignore. Read the latest research regarding the design of our universe, its exactness, its intricacy, how it all must be exactly where it is. Look at the earth, its location in our universe, how it happens to be in the best spot in the universe for us humans to study our universe and what is outside of it. Look at the earth itself and how its seasons come and go, along with the tides, and crops, and generation after generation of all that is. Then delve into the microscopic world and see how the detail persists even down to that level. I’m sure either direction you choose to go in you can spend the rest of your life exploring, and you will never be able to say I’ve figured it all out. God cannot be accused of lacking in language. We lack in our ability to listen. We want to listen our way.

My fear is the answers will come for those who ask for more details, but in a fashion similar to chapters 38-41 of the book of Job. If such is the case then may God have mercy.

As I wrote earlier, I believe God made it all. To ask Him for details in an explanation of our choosing is biting off more than we can chew. It is best that we ask for what we can stand. For the Einsteins and Hawkings this will be much in our eyes. For others it will be less. In either case, we need to humbly remember Who it is we ask.