God said, “Let us make man in our image and
likeness to rule the fish in the sea, the birds of
heaven, the cattle, all wild animals on earth,
and all reptiles that crawl upon the earth.”
So God created man in his own image; in the
image of God he created him, male and female.
God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful
and increase; fill the earth and subdue it.”
Genesis 1:26–28
In the opening chapter of the story of creation we read
that God created humankind – both male and female –in his
own image, and that he blessed them and commanded them
to be fruitful and to care for the earth. Right from the start,
God shows himself as the creator who “saw all that he had
made, and it was very good.” Here, right at the beginning
of the Bible, God reveals his heart to us. Here we discover
God’s plan for our lives.
Many, if not most, twentieth-century Christians dismiss
the story of creation as a myth. Others insist that only the
strictest, most literal interpretation of Genesis is valid. I
simply have reverence for the word of the Bible as it stands.
On the one hand, I would not think of arguing away anything
in it; on the other, I believe scientists are right in cautioning
that the biblical account of creation should not be taken
too literally. As Peter says, “With the Lord, a day is like a
thousand years, and a thousand years like one day” (2 Pet.
3:8).
