Hannah Prays

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Then the Lord said, “Let the earth produce every sort of animal, each producing offspring of the same kind—livestock, small animals that scurry along the ground, wild animals.” And that is what happened. God made all sorts of wild animals, livestock, and small animals each able to produce offspring of th same kind. And God saw that it was good. Then God said, “Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us. They will reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth, and the small animals that scurry along the ground. So God created human beings in his image. In the image of God he created them, male and female he created them. The Gpd blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it. Reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the animals that scurry along the ground. Then God said, “Look! I have given you every seed-bearing plant throughout the earth and all the fruit trees...

Then God said, “Let the waters swarm with fish and other life. Let the skies be filled with birds of every kind.” So God created great sea creatures and every living thing that scurries and swarms in the water, and every sort of bird—each producing offspring of the same kind. And God saw that it was good. Then God blessed them, saying “Be fruitful and multiply. Let the fish fill the seas, and let the birds multiply on earth.” And evening passed and morning came, marking the fifth day. (Genesis 1: 20-23, NLT) Friends, there is a lot going on in these few verses that warrant a close look. First this is the moment when God created animals, specifically water-based animals and birds. Now I know many of you reading don’t believe in evolution, but I’d like you to keep an open mind for a bit. Evolutionary biologists hold that animal life began in the water and we now know that dinosaurs are in fact genetically related to birds. This should make us shout for joy to see science and Christ...

Then God said, ‘Let lights appear in the sky to separate the day from night. Let them be signs to mark the seasons, days, and years. Let these lights in the sky shine down on the earth.’ And that is what happened. God made two great lights—the larger one to govern the day, and the smaller one to govern the night. He also made the stars. God set these lights in the sky to light the earth, to govern day and night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. And evening passed and morning came, marking the fourth day. (Gensis 1: 14-19) There are several important things happening in this passage and on this day. One of the most important and subtle is the refrain of separating light from darkness. If you recall God’s first creative act was to call into being light. In Christian theology, this Light is Christ. God essentially calls forth the creative Light from within the Father to spill the loving light of world into all that will come into being. Here, t...

God said "Let the land sprout with vegetation--every sort of seed-bearing plant, and trees that grow seed-bearing fruit. These seeds will then produce the kinds of plants and trees from which they came." And that is what happened. The land produced vegetation--all sorts of seed-bearing plants and trees with seed bearing fruit. Their seeds produced plants and trees of the same kind and God saw that it was good. And evening passed and morning came, marking the third day. (Genesis 1:11-13) In the Book of John we are taught that Jesus was with God at the beginning of time, breathing life into all things. When I read this passage of the third day I am struct by the repetition of the seed . Throughout scripture the seed has been linked to Christ's coming for he was conceived by the holly spirit with the seed of woman. Indeed moving a little bit further into the scripture in Chapter 3 we are told that it is the seed of woman who will stomp on the head of the serpent, another a...

Then God said, “Let the waters beneath the sky flow together into one place, so dry ground may appear. And that was what happened. God called the dry ground “land” and the waters “seas. And God saw that it was good. (Genesis 1: 9-10, NLT) I love Nature. I even teach a course on how the science of ecology illuminates the sacred. But do I really notice Nature in the intimate way God intended through the act of creation and its inherent goodness? Am I aware of the ground beneath my feet that became the land our civilizations are built upon? I actually don’t think so. I don’t think I give it the attention that I am meant to. Nature, I think, is a backdrop to us. It exists beneath our feet or behind us, coloring our day-to-day lives or, more likely, frustrating us with discomfort of never having the just-right weather. It does not WOW us. We do not allow ourselves to be amazed by the power of God that is revealed in the most fundamental aspect of life on Earth, dirt! God is in the very...

And God said, “Let there be a vault between the waters to separate water from water.” So God made a vault and separated the water under the vault from the water above it. And it was so. God called the vault “sky.” And there was evening and there was morning -- the second day. (NIV Genesis 1:6-8) As a child, I spent countless hours looking up at the sky and the clouds that filled it. They were magical moments when the puffy white clouds took on shapes that filled the wondrous landscape of my imagination. I remember vividly laying there as slightly spiky, cool blades of grass poked at my neck and feet. As a young child, the sky ended and what lay beyond was Heaven. I had no idea that beyond the sky was an infinitely larger expanse of space even more wondrous than the very glimmer of it seen at night, when the sun winked out. But the childhood imaginings of Heaven just beyond the arc of the pale blue sky isn’t far from the truth of the scriptures. The scriptures intend for us to see t...