Why did God create the world?

Photo by Aza Raskin

No, seriously. Why did God decide to do it? And in what sense did God create? Did God create out of nothing (ex nihilo) as we've so often thought in our modern age? Genesis 1 records an idea of God that presumes somethingness to have already existed. "And the earth was formless and empty." That hardly sounds like the ancient author understood matter the way we do. Or maybe God did create everything out of nothing. I certainly don't see any reason why God couldn't do that. But it doesn't answer the question, does it?

Why did God create the world?

It's a question that results in a lot of silence for a while. And then eventually someone ventures a tidbit of an old Sunday school lesson... "so God could be glorified?"

But that raises more questions. Does that make God a narcissistic egomaniac? At best, that scenario paints God as being  the opposite of the most recognized qualities which God embodied through the life of Jesus. For me, that answer is inadequate.

Why did God create the world?

Maybe you can psycho-analyze the question and conclude that when I ask this, I'm really trying to figure out why God created me. Sometimes that's correct. I really want to know why God created me, personally, individually, egotistically, and emblematically self. But jumping to that conclusion still doesn't answer the question. Have you ever felt like someone avoided your question because they thought you were really asking something else? According to the gospel writers, Jesus experienced that too. Sometimes it's a good thing when someone recognizes the question behind the question. But there are other times when it's not.

Undeniably, there are times when you mean exactly what you say and you want someone to answer it. Even if you recognize that some questions just can't be answered as conclusively as explaining why a dog wags its tail, there are times when you need someone to give you their honest and in-progress thoughts. This experience means that we as humans crave vulnerability: to be vulnerable and to share in someone else's vulnerability.

Why did God create the world?

It's almost a riddle isn't it. It's like a riddle that has become separated from its answer, so the ones asking it no longer know what the answer is. I wonder: out there somewhere, is there a person or a culture who has an answer but no riddle?

Why did God create the world?

It's fair to criticize the people who divert the question in order to answer another one. It's okay to feel disappointed or even angry when your question has been twisted and turned because someone would rather address their own conclusions about you--than you.

But in another sense, we know there are some questions without answers, as well as probably implications if there was a known answer. So the fact that we recognize one of these enigmatic quandaries in the wild and instinctively respond by jumping to one of the implicated issues that is close to our heart is natural. And in that respect it's not only telling of what we value, but also of our desire to form relationships.

Why did God create the world?

Relationships are everywhere. There are mathematical relationships between values (like your checking account) and there are non-mathematical relationships (like your marriage). There are geographical spaces and political camps. Time is a kind of relationship and so is the menu at your favorite restaurant. In Genesis 1 we read about a God who puts everything into an ordered relationship by creating, defining, developing, and organizing. And certainly when two people fall in love there are things that are created, defined, developed, and organized. Romance results in a restructuring of each individual life. Friendship results often in the restructuring of orders in life as new systems replace old systems.

Why did God create the world?

Honestly, I would argue that God created the world precisely because whether it was pre-existent somethingness or completely nothingness, God deemed its formlessness to be incompatible with God's nature. John reflects that the nature of God is love. My experience of the world confirms that. Thus, the way I form my story to answer the question incorporates that belief. And the answer I arrive at is that because love is generative and ultimately ordering, and because God is the essence and source of what we know as love, it follows that God created the world because God could not possibly resist it.

Like the gasses in a champagne following the cork out with a pop. Like light and heat emanating from a bonfire. Like sound erupting from a parade march--even if there were no other sound the very march itself can do nothing other than projecting its rhythm. God is like that unstoppable stampede or parading love that creates life and stomps order into it everywhere that it runs. Up and up it goes, ever climbing and ever expanding. Upward and bursting in its jubilant eternal procession.

That is why God created the world.

And it's in this flowing explosion of life and love that I hope to join completely as I can devote more and more of myself to God. Thank you for journeying with me.