Why Six Days?

He could have done it in a day.  In a moment.  He could have snapped his fingers (or even skipped that) and poof the world and all that is in it would have been created.  In one moment, there would be nothing, an open chilling black void, and in the next moment, there would be birds and worms and lava and mushrooms and hot springs and sunshine and . . . .

He could have done it in a moment.  But he didn’t.  According to Genesis 1, on the first day he separated light from dark.  The second, he separated water from sky, and the third, he worked on the land.  He didn’t even create anything living until the fourth day.

Regardless of where one stands in the evolution versus creationism versus intelligent design debate (it doesn’t matter to me whether you believe in six literal days or a figurative timeline), the reality is that God did not whip through his creation in just a moment.  He took his time.

Why?

One reason that I’ve heard suggested is that God took six days to create the world so that it could be an example to us as humans about work and rest.  We work six days, and rest on the seventh (or at least that was the plan).  This example-theory seems reasonable, but I wonder if there is a deeper, more foundational reason why creation took so long: our God is a creative God.

He could have made the world in a moment, but he enjoyed the creative process enough to spend some time working on it.

And thankfully, that creativity is one thing he has passed on to humans, made in his image.

For example, I wanted to have a cool mobile hanging over my son’s crib.  I wanted something other than the fuzzy elephants or bears, swaying in circles above his head.  Besides, why would I want to teach my child that bears and elephants fly?

Of course, I could buy a nice mobile.  It would be the equivalent of me snapping my fingers and poof having a cool mobile.  But enjoying the creative process, I decided to make a mobile on my own. In the end, I decided on something that I thought would be cool and that would have a legitimate reason to be flying through the air.  I decided to make a mobile with World War II fighter airplanes.

So I scoured the Internet to decide which planes to create, day one.  Day two consisted of bending wire hangers into the shape of my chosen planes.  Day three: more wire-bending.  It’s now a couple of months later, and the project is progressing nicely for the limited amount of time I have to work on it.

And best of all, it allows me to express my creativity.  Had I just snapped my fingers and produced a store-bought clone of hundreds of other mobiles, I would not have been as satisfied with the mobile in the same way that I’m already feeling satisfied with my homemade one.

Of course the analogy breaks down when God is the primary creator.  He could have snapped his fingers and still created exactly the same world he created now, whereas my finger-snap method would have only produced a store-bought alternative.

Still, I think the fact that God chose to work through his creation, day by day, word by word, shows his enjoyment in being a part of this world he has created.  He is not just rushing through the process to get it done, but he is taking time in the creative process to work through each stage of the process one at a time.

Rather than needing to take six days to create the world, God wanted to.  God wanted to spend time in creation.  This realization has profound implications for us as we live our lives.

God could treat the world like an assignment, something to work through as quickly as possible.  But instead, God treats the world as his creation, something to work with day-by-day, something to enjoy, something to invest himself in.

And in the end, a creation is much more enjoyable than an assignment.  A process brings more joy than a snap of the fingers.

Spending time with God is inviting him to enjoy his investment into creation.  And it allows you the unique opportunity to enjoy your creator.

Don’t rush through it.