For those of us who love drama or the theater, plays always have parts in them, and those parts follow a particular sequence. Every drama is meant to tell the whole story. A part of a drama is not enough to tell a full story; each part is essential to the whole, integral to the whole, and each part survives or falls with the whole. Every part lives on the others and is connected.

In Godly Play, a Montessori-based approach to Christian formation for children, one of the questions for reflection is: 'Which part of the story can we take out and still have the same story?' The short answer is that we can't remove any part of the story and still have the same story. Every part of it relies on the other parts, and so you cannot necessarily remove one and still have the same story.

A five-act play is divided up in this way:

Act I - Expositions. This part introduces the main conflict, the setting and he characters involved.

Act II - Rising Action. This is where we are introduced to complications and tensions begin to rise.

Act III - Climax. This marks the turning point with emotional intensity

Act IV - Falling Action. Events begin to resolve

Act V - Denouement. The drama concludes with loose ends being tied up.

It is interesting to note that God’s dealings and/or relationship with us can be divided into a five-act play.

Here is God’s 5-act play with us:

Act I – Creation.

Act II – The Fall.

Act III – Calling of Israel.

Act IV – The Messiah.

Act V – The Mop Up.

Act I:

Genesis narrates the imprint of God in creation, telling a unique story about the hand of God being active in creation. More profound is the idea that God created out of nothing, but he gave shape and meaning to a formless void - call it the Big Bang.

Come to think of it, as far as we know, there’s no other existence or life form anywhere else in the universe than on planet Earth. But the writer of Genesis didn’t know about that, nor did the writer know of any other place on Earth than the limited geographical experience of their world. But despite their limited experience, the writer may just have pondered over the beauty and magnificence of creation, the place of humans in creation, and the awesome responsibility that it places on humans - that we are co-creators with God.

The vastness, beauty, complexity, and rhythmic pattern of creation must have blown the mind of the writer of the creation story. And the honest truth is that this writer had only seen but a sliver of the entire creation. But it still was too much to contain, and too much to behold. At their core, they knew that creation didn’t just emerge; there was a prime mover, as St. Thomas Aquinas argued, and that prime mover is God. Based on what their eyes saw, the authors of the creation story ascribed creation to a benevolent God - for who else could have done this? 

The wonder and amazement with which you look at creation is no different from that of the writer of the creation story. The only difference is that you have had the blessing of traveling and seeing more than they ever could.

I once saw an artist’s impression of Lower Manhattan during the discovery of the island by Henry Hudson. It was beautiful - you could almost feel and touch the plush vegetation, and sense the serenity of the area. Who could have created all this and put it at the disposal of men and women? Henry Hudson’s feeling of amazement and awe isn’t different from the writer of the creation story.

A crucial aspect of the creation story is the creation of humanity, specifically the creation of man and woman. There are two key points that the authors sought to make, which should demand our greatest attention and consideration. First - God created humans, us, in God’s image. God could have created humans in any image, but God chose to create humans in God’s image. That reveals more about God than it reveals about me or you. Listen to how the Psalmist interprets this part of God’s relationship with humans:

What is mankind that you are mindful of them,

    human beings that you care for them?

You have made them a little lower than the angels

    and crowned them with glory and honor

They figured that if a benevolent God created the earth and all that is in it, then it stands to reason that humans who bear the image of God have something in common with this benevolent God. Remember, this idea of God creating the universe isn’t simply a Judeo-Christian idea. It cuts across many cultures across the world that are not affiliated with the Judeo-Christian narrative. 

And if we believe that this benevolent God created humans in His image, then our primary call is to benevolence. And the response to this benevolent call is an embrace of all that is represented in another human being - the good, the bad, and the ugly. This means that we cannot pick and choose those to whom we can and should be benevolent. The invitation is always to reach out and tap into the benevolence that is in us, because it is the same benevolence that is in the other. Our highest calling is to be in tune with the dignity that is in us because it is the same dignity that is in the other.

Second - God created humans out of the dust of the earth. That is the most somber reality that you and I can ever imagine. This means that we are the dust of the world upon which we walk. That you cannot rise above the dust that you are, and one dust isn’t any different from the other. The only difference between us and the dust upon which we walk is that we have life. But at some point in our lives, we too will become the dust upon which we walk. We are finite, and our time on earth is never eternal.

In my view, this is the reality that should humble us and inspire a sense of gratitude, which in turn leads to humility. If we are the dust of the earth, yet we have been blessed with life, then we ought to be thankful. And being thankful is what keeps us humble.

This is the point that the writer of the creation story sought to make: we are nothing apart from the benevolent God who created us.

At the end of creation, we hear the writer remind us, God saw what God had created, and it was good. Creation is good. And so are you!

If creation is good, and we are good... then what happened?

Manny+

(I plan to devote each week to an Act, so be on the lookout for Act II next week.)