NOTES for Gen 1:1-2:3
When reading about the beginning of the world, we need to remember that the Book of Genesis, like the whole Bible, is written not about the past but about the present. In a special ancient symbolic language, it reflects truths that will never change, regardless of the development of physics or history. This short account testifies to the inseparable connection between what surrounds us - light, water, earth, trees and grasses, fish, animals, and birds - and the One who stands behind all of it and is not part of this world. How can this mystery be conveyed? The world did not create itself, and we did not create it. There is the One who is responsible for this world, who grants the world existence and rejoices in its beauty, seeing that it is "very good." If we learn to contemplate this mystery, then everything good and beautiful in this world will speak to us about Him, about the One who created the world in the very beginning and gave it to us.