Unless you know where the story of this earth begins, you will never understand who made it and why it was made. The very first words of the Bible say: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." We should never underestimate the deep and powerful truth these simple words reveal. Our Maker is giving us a window into the moment he brought our world into existence. Many choose to deny this as mythology. They choose to believe our world came into existence by chance encounters of certain elements. Where did those elements come from? Why do we exist? These things can't be known with any certainty, they say.

I choose to believe there is a Creator who established the order and the beauty of our world. It is just too big a leap for me to believe it was all just happenstance. Not only did God create our world but He had good intentions for His creation. He relished the beauty of His creation. Genesis 1 says repeatedly that God took a step back and looked at what He was creating and said that it was "GOOD". Genesis 1 also reveals God was especially excited about the pinnacle of His creation: humanity. God reveals to us how He was in a relationship with the humans He created.

These beginning truths set the stage for the rest of history. The suffering and brokenness we experience is not what God intended for His creation. His creatures spoiled the goodness of His creation. God could have abandoned or destroyed His creation but His love for humanity drove Him to set a plan for redemption in motion.