Sometimes One Story Is Not Enough
What the two creation stories in Genesis have taught me about seeing truth from more than one direction
Welcome to Friday’s reflection.
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My favourite moments usually involve those rare occasions when the whole family manages to get together, sit around the table, and share some of our memories. The holidays we have taken together, days out and the silly things Dad has done are regular features.
The interesting thing is that although they are our shared memories, we regularly remember them very differently. We may all have been there, but our specific memories of what happened, how we felt and usually what we ate can vary greatly.
There is usually one person who remembers an argument nobody else can recall at all.
None of this means somebody is lying. We simply notice different things and experience them in different ways. We tell stories according to what matters to us, and sometimes we need several versions before we begin to see the whole picture.
I find myself thinking about that whenever I return to the opening chapters of Genesis. Because the Bible appears to begin by telling the creation story twice, and the details do not entirely match.
That can be uncomfortable if we expect the Bible to behave like a modern textbook. Surely, we think, if God is going to explain how the world began, one clear account ought to be enough.
Yet Genesis gives us two, and perhaps that is the point.
