Grace for God’s Community

¹ When God began to create the heavens and the earth ² the earth was without shape or form, it was dark over the deep sea, and God’s wind swept over the waters ³ God said, “Let there be light.” And so light appeared. ⁴ God saw how good the light was. God separated the light from the darkness. ⁵ God named the light Day and the darkness Night. There was evening and there was morning: the first day. ⁶ God said, “Let there be a dome in the middle of the waters to separate the waters from each other.” ⁷ God made the dome and separated the waters under the dome from the waters above the dome. And it happened in that way. ⁸ God named the dome Sky. There was evening and there was morning: the second day. ⁹ God said, “Let the waters under the sky come together into one place so that the dry land can appear.” And that’s what happened. ¹⁰ God named the dry land Earth, and he named the gathered waters Seas. God saw how good it was. ¹¹ God said, “Let the earth grow plant life: plants yielding seeds and fruit trees bearing fruit with seeds inside it, each according to its kind throughout the earth.” And that’s what happened. ¹² The earth produced plant life: plants yielding seeds, each according to its kind, and trees bearing fruit with seeds inside it, each according to its kind. God saw how good it was. ¹³ There was evening and there was morning: the third day. ¹⁴ God said, “Let there be lights in the dome of the sky to separate the day from the night. They will mark events, sacred seasons, days, and years. ¹⁵ They will be lights in the dome of the sky to shine on the earth.” And that’s what happened. ¹⁶ God made the stars and two great lights: the larger light to rule over the day and the smaller light to rule over the night. ¹⁷ God put them in the dome of the sky to shine on the earth, ¹⁸ to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. God saw how good it was. ¹⁹ There was evening and there was morning: the fourth day. ²⁰ God said, “Let the waters swarm with living things, and let birds fly above the earth up in the dome of the sky.” ²¹ God created the great sea animals and all the tiny living things that swarm in the waters, each according to its kind, and all the winged birds, each according to its kind. God saw how good it was. ²² Then God blessed them: “Be fertile and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let the birds multiply on the earth.” ²³ There was evening and there was morning: the fifth day. ²⁴ God said, “Let the earth produce every kind of living thing: livestock, crawling things, and wildlife.” And that’s what happened. ²⁵ God made every kind of wildlife, every kind of livestock, and every kind of creature that crawls on the ground. God saw how good it was. ²⁶ Then God said, “Let us make humanity in our image to resemble us so that they may take charge of the fish of the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the earth, and all the crawling things on earth.” ²⁷ God created humanity in God’s own image, in the divine image God created them, male and female God created them. ²⁸ God blessed them and said to them, “Be fertile and multiply; fill the earth and master it. Take charge of the fish of the sea, the birds in the sky, and everything crawling on the ground.” ²⁹ Then God said, “I now give to you all the plants on the earth that yield seeds and all the trees whose fruit produces its seeds within it. These will be your food. ³⁰ To all wildlife, to all the birds in the sky, and to everything crawling on the ground—to everything that breathes—I give all the green grasses for food.” And that’s what happened.