We read in Genesis 1:1 that God created the heavens and the earth, but what happened before he created them? This is where my mind wonders today.
I imagine God, in all His infinite wisdom, sat down at His desk one day and began to draw out of his imagination a beautiful picture of existence. His paper was made out of dust and particles and he had many different drawing utensils. Some that drew light, others that drew planets, and a whole set, freshly sharpened, that were specifically for drawing every living creature. Every stroke of his pencil was made with such precision that he really didn't need an eraser. But still, as every artist immersed in their work, his brow was heavy with focus and the end of his pencils were gnawed on with great anticipation.
And maybe after He had spent time critiquing His work and making any last minute changes he sat His pencil down on the desk and poured Himself a drink. He stretched His long legs across the desk and leaned way back in his chair, hands folded behind his head. This was how he liked to soak up the satisfaction that only comes when you've put in the long hours of good work. And as the drink warmed his belly, so did His thoughts of these new creations warm his heart. The slow pace of eternity seemed quite peaceful to Him that day.
But there is one question that raises in my mind thinking about all of this, did God spend time at His table drawing us? If we are made in His image, then what point is there in drawing what He already knew? It's possible He could have looked in a mirror and drawn us from his reflection. But is the drawing of a reflection really accurate? A reflection is only how we see ourselves, not how other people see us. So if we are made in the likeness of God, then I would expect we aren't just a mere reflection. Rather, I believe God had a special place in his heart when he made you and me. Whereas I see Him standing on top of eternity speaking the world into existence with great authority and clarity, I believe He stepped down from on high and knelt down in the earth and spoke with a great smile and wide-eyed wonder when He made us in His image. Each one of us just the same, but also completely unique from one another.
The title of this post was inspired by the second half of Proverbs 8:27 where wisdom is speaking on account of how he/she (is wisdom a person?) has been around since the beginning:
When he established the heavens, I was there;
when he drew a circle on the face of the deep...
That visual of God drawing a circle really made me stop and consider the act of creation in a much different way. I'm not proposing that anything I've written here is at all factual, but I am encouraging us to push our own understanding through the use of our imaginations.