Are You Reading Your "First Bible"?

By Martijn van Tilborgh

Most of us are familiar with the opening lines of the Bible.

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

The story tells us that God spoke creation into existence.

Everything began with a word.

It was His WORD that created ALL THINGS.

Isaiah later reflects on this and says something fascinating. God’s word never returns empty. It always accomplishes what it was sent to do (Isaiah 55).

Think about that for a moment.

If God’s word created all things, and God’s word never fails, then creation itself carries the echo of that word.

Many centuries later, John pushes this idea even further:

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God… Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.” (John 1:1–3)

Think about that for a moment.

If the Word is God, and all things were made through the Word, then something of God must be woven into everything that exists.

Maybe that’s why Isaiah continues by saying:

The mountains and hills will burst into song.
The trees of the field will clap their hands.

Creation itself seems to respond to its Creator.

Jesus later echoes the same strange idea when He says that if people remain silent, the rocks themselves will cry out.

So where am I going with this?

It makes me wonder…

What if sometimes we’re looking for God in the wrong places?

What if God is far bigger than our religious frameworks allow?

What if the presence of God can sometimes be found outside the spaces where we’ve been taught to look?

What if God is hiding in plain sight?

And here’s another thought.

What if some people who don’t consider themselves “religious” are actually more aware of God’s presence in the world than those of us who spend our lives inside religious systems?

After all, they were created by the same Word.

Maybe that’s why they sometimes seem more free to participate in the divine dance of life, creation, beauty, and wonder.

Which raises another question.

What if creation itself was humanity’s first Bible?

Long before a single page of scripture was written, the Word had already spoken and the universe was the result.

So here’s the question I’ll leave you with:

Does God ever really stop speaking?