Introduction

The Lower Story

To better understand God’s story, we will need to view it with a dual lens. Just as if we were wearing bifocals, through the lower lens we will gaze at the individual stories from the Bible in chronological order. Think of these individual pieces as our Lower Story.

The Lower Story reveals the here and now of daily life, the experiences and circumstances we see here on earth. In the Bible, there are the individual stories of people like Adam and Eve, Abraham and Sarah, David, Esther, Jesus, Paul, and Peter. As we probe these stories, they offer unique lessons for living.

The Upper Story

But God has a higher agenda than our individual stories of survival and comfort. When we rise above the here and now, look beyond the daily grind, and view each of these stories in the Bible from God’s perspective, we see something much bigger.

This is the Upper Story. As we view the Bible through this lens, we see that God has been up to something amazing from the very beginning. He has a vision, a big idea, and it is all good news for us. When we look at the Upper Story of God—his magnificent mural—we discover where we fit in, because this story was created to deliver one singular message: God loves us and wants to be in a relationship with us.

God Wants to Be With Us

A View from the Lower Story

The first chapter of Genesis is like a page out of the Trinity Construction work log, except it reads more like poetry. The sequence and pattern are simple, but almost too overwhelming to take in. On days one, two, and three, God painted the places of the earth on the canvas. Then on days four, five, and six, he put objects in each place to fill this space.

With the end of each day of creation, God stepped back, took a look, and recorded in his journal, “This is good.” But while the creation of the heavens and the earth and the other one hundred billion galaxies or more is impressive, it is not the point of the story. Mount Everest. The Grand Canyon. The stark beauty of the Sahara. The cascading elegance of Victoria Falls. Combine these and thousands of other jewels of his creative powers, and you’re not even close to identifying the core passion of God. Those are just the display cases to highlight his real work of art.

A View From the Upper Story

So, we know what God did. The big question is, why? Why would God step outside of his perfect Upper Story and come down into our Lower Story?

The real point of Genesis is so amazing it’s almost unbelievable: God wants to be with us. The God of the universe has created a place to come down to be with us. He no longer wanted only to enjoy the perfect community he had as the Trinity (Father, Son, Holy Spirit). The Ultimate Author of this grand story wanted to share life with us.

“In the beginning” God came up with a plan to perfectly connect his Upper Story with our Lower Story. He literally desired to bring heaven down to earth—first to create a paradise and then man and woman in his own image, and then to come down to take walks with them in the cool of the day.

When God (Father, Son, Holy Spirit) created Adam and Eve in his image and stepped back to take another look, he not only said it was good, like he did on every other day of creation, but he said it was very good!

A Moment to Reflect

1. In Genesis 1:1–25, several verses begin simply with “God said.” In what ways does this impact your view of God and his authority?
2. In Genesis 1:26–27 (NIV) God says, “Let us make mankind in our image” (emphasis added), seemingly referring to the Trinity. Then he tells us it was both Adam and Eve who were made in the image of God. What do you think this means?
3. Psychologist Dr. Allan Schore defines joy this way: “What I feel when I see the sparkle in someone’s eyes that conveys ‘I’m happy to be with you.’” When God looks at you, he says, “You are very good.” How does this make you feel?