For the first time in the Bible, something is not good. Genesis 1 has repeated the verdict again and again: the light is good, the land is good, the living creatures are good, and at last the whole creation is very good. Then comes the jarring sentence: “It is not good for the man to be alone” (Genesis 2:18).

Try this thought experiment. You are standing in a place so beautiful, so abundant, so alive that the senses cannot quite take it in — the colour of the leaves, the scent of the blossoms, the sound of cold clean water moving through the garden, fruit of every kind hanging within easy reach. The light is perfect. The air is perfect. The animals are quiet. And then a voice calls your name, and you know — with no anxiety, no embarrassment, no hiding — that the One who designed this whole place is walking with you. That, in Genesis 2:4–17, is the world you were originally made for.

Fifty years ago in Ireland, Sundays looked different. Hardly a shop was open. Few cars were on the road, and most of those that were carried families heading to or from church. Pavements in Belfast were thick with people walking to worship; Bona Fide laws still constrained who could buy a drink on the Lord's Day in the Republic. In the space of two generations, that world has all but vanished — not just outside the church, but tragically inside it. Many congregations have quietly abandoned the idea that one day in seven belongs to God in a special way. Others have allowed it to become a question rather than a conviction.

"Then God said, 'Let us make man in our image, in our likeness. And let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth.'" With those words in Genesis 1:26, the curtain rises on humanity's purpose. The previous verses record what we are — beings stamped with God's own image, carrying a dignity unparalleled in the rest of creation. But the next breath of revelation moves immediately from being to function: from who we are to what we are called to do.

“What is man that you are mindful of him?” (Psalm 8:4)

What did planet Earth look like in its very first moments of existence? We might expect a breathtaking paradise — after all, this is God’s handiwork. But Genesis 1:2 paints a strikingly different picture: "Now the earth was formless and empty. Darkness was over the surface of the deep." An empty, uninhabitable, barren wilderness. A vast, unending ocean with no shore, blanketed in total darkness.

"In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth." — Genesis 1:1

Who is Like the Lord Our God?

What happens when you start reading the most important book ever written? You begin with Genesis — and everything else flows from there. As we embark on a new series through this foundational book, it’s worth pausing to take in the view before we plunge into the text itself. Genesis is not just the first book of the Bible; it is the prologue that sets the stage for every act that follows.