There is a not so commonly known Hebrew word "dabar" that essentially means "God spoke". The early Hebrews understood this word to be more than just the sound of Gods voice, this was God connecting words and phrases with purpose, God making and telling a story, and as Gods story unfolded, He created.
This fascinates me because I had always imagined that when God created the heavens and the Earth, I had imagined God simply uttering the word "light" and light just suddenly appeared. When he created living creatures, and when he created man, I just imagined that he spoke but a word and instantly these things appeared.
Now there is a sense in which this is still true. But what I had overlooked until now was the intentionality and design of Gods creative voice. When God spoke, he was creatively weaving a story together. He was creating not as if by magic, but with thought and design. He was putting a story together with purpose and meaning. Like an artisan creating a fine piece of furniture with a master design and a masterplan, God was meticulous about how he put his piece together, taking care with the timber, choosing only the best materials and with attention to detail, fashioning it carefully into shape. He was like a writer, searching for just the right words, just the right phrase, choosing with deliberation, in order to create the most beautiful story one could imagine. He “storied” the birds and the fish, the grasses and the trees. Everything he created was with design and intentionality. There was careful thought, diligent planning. He spoke, and as he spoke he created, he "storied" the world into existence. In the beginning, God "storied" the heavens and the earth.
This makes me realise that he has “storied” me into existence also. My life is a story within “The Story”. A life created by God deliberately stringing just the right words together, in order to create who I am today, and who I will be tomorrow.
In Psalm 139:14, the Psalmist says “I am fearfully and wonderfully made”
The term in the Hebrew means to be distinct and different. It carries the idea of being set apart from everything else because of its uniqueness.
When God “storied” my life and when God “storied” yours, he created an original. No two stories are the same. “Everyone has their own story”, because it was God who spoke the stories together.
This is “dabar”, and this is how God creates.
