Frame of Reference
January 4 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Genesis 1:1
Frame of Reference
And The Earth – Are you so familiar with this opening verse that you no longer think about what it says? Yes, of course, it tells us that God created everything. That’s what the Hebrew idiom hashamayim ve haarets means. But if you stop long enough to consider some of the other implications here, you will see that this opening verse also provides us with the proper frame of reference for the rest of the Bible. This verse tells us that the rest of the Bible is going to examine the relationship between God and His creation from the perspective of the earth. While the entire creation is focused on the cosmos, the whole scene of what matters to us is focused right here – on earth. God created it all, but we are the story He has decided to tell.
You might think that this is so obvious that it isn’t worth noticing. You’d be wrong. Of course it’s obvious. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t critically important. The Bible is not about theoretical particle physics or microbiology or endocrinology or supply-side economics. It’s about Man’s relationship with God. In one sense, the Bible isn’t even about ethics, spirituality, morality or evangelism. Yes, all those things come into play, but they aren’t central to the frame of reference. That’s why the Bible isn’t a workbook or a textbook. It’s a love story. It’s about a lover who never gives up on his wayward bride. The frame of reference in vitally important. It prevents us from being dragged away from the real point of this book by spinning off into exotic discussions of the state of the universe or the size of a mustard seed.
There’s something else in this all-too-obvious frame of reference. Everyone knows that the earth is not the center of the universe. Anyone who paid any attention at all to the biblical record itself would have know that. But right at the beginning, the Bible introduces its unique perspective with earth at the center of attention. God created the heavens and the earth. The place we inhabit belongs to Him. The perspective we have on the universe begins with Him. In His book, our home is the center of His attention. So, what the Bible describes is not a neutral, detached, “scientific” examination of everything. It is a particular, unique, God-in-relationship orientation that plays itself out on the stage of the earth. Hebrew is a particularly useful language for this love story since it also takes its perspective from the way things appear to the beholder. This opening verse tells us that what really matters is the way things appear to the lover and His bride. What you see is what you get. Yes, there’s more to the story, but what matters is how it appears to us here and now.
OK, so it’s obvious, right? But how does this obvious frame of reference affect your behavior? Are you living with the same orientation? Is your life story really all about His love story? Is that how things appear to you? Maybe its time to set aside all that theoretical, theological and thinking orientation and read the love letter from heaven one more time.
Topical Index: Bible, earth, Hebrew, perspective
