There are two accounts of creation in the book of Genesis. (Perhaps these two traditions were merged when refugees from the Northern Kingdom brought their heritage to Jerusalem when their nation fell?) In Genesis Chapter One God is above and beyond all that we are. God creates with a word, bringing everything that is into being out of nothing. Chapter Two portrays a God who is close to the world, who is very much with us. God engages in the act of creation. The LORD God formed man out of the clay of the ground and blew into his nostrils the breath of life. We must hold onto both images of God — God is beyond us while at the same time God is with us.
