• Why you already have a “worldview” whether you’ve ever thought about it or not — and how to tell if it actually holds together
• What it really means to be made “in the image of God,” and why that gives every person — regardless of health, ability, race, or age — equal worth
• Why the Bible’s claim that the universe “had a beginning” was radical when it was written, and how it lines up with what modern science now says

Everyone is walking around with a story they believe about the world — where it came from, who’s in charge, and why any of it matters. Most of us never chose that story on purpose; we picked it up from our families, our culture, or whatever felt true at the time. This page looks at the very first verse of the Bible, Genesis 1:1, and what it claims about where everything — including you — actually came from.

Yes. Everyone operates from some set of answers to life’s biggest questions — what matters, who am I, where did I come from, what happens when I die. You didn’t necessarily choose these answers on purpose; you likely absorbed them from your family, culture, and experiences growing up. The real question isn’t whether you have a worldview — it’s whether the one you have actually holds together and can bear the weight of real life. Genesis 1:1 opens with a specific claim about where everything came from: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” It’s an invitation to examine your own answers against this one.

It’s a real, connected story — not a grab bag of unrelated tales. The Bible is 66 books, written by about 40 authors over roughly 1,500 years, across three continents and three languages, yet it holds together as one unfolding story with a beginning, a turning point, and a resolution. Many people know isolated Bible stories — David and Goliath, the Lord’s Prayer, a few of the Ten Commandments — without ever seeing how they connect. Genesis 1 through 11 sets up the tension for everything that follows: a good world, a break in that goodness, and a promise that the rest of the story works out.

The Bible describes two ways God makes himself known. The first is called natural revelation — things we can figure out just by looking at creation or listening to our own conscience, like a basic sense of right and wrong that’s hard to fully shake, even when we try. The second is special revelation — specific truth God reveals on purpose, most fully through Jesus and through the Bible itself. As Genesis 1:1 puts it, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” — the story doesn’t start with humanity figuring God out, it starts with God already there and making the first move.

At the time Genesis was written, most ancient cultures believed the material of the universe had simply always existed in some chaotic form, with their gods just shaping raw material that was already there. Genesis 1:1 makes a different claim: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” — meaning there was a starting point, and God existed before and beyond it. Strikingly, this lines up with what modern cosmology now affirms: the universe had a beginning (often referred to as the “Big Bang”) and is not eternal. A book written thousands of years ago made a claim about origins that science would eventually catch up to.

The Hebrew word used in Genesis 1:1, bara, is a word only ever used when God is the subject — no human “creates” the way God creates. When people make something, we always start with existing material: wood, paint, ideas already in our heads. Genesis describes God creating out of nothing at all — speaking the universe into existence rather than assembling it from raw materials. It’s a way of saying God isn’t limited by the same rules the rest of creation runs on; he’s the source of the raw material itself, not just an especially skilled craftsman working with what was already there.

It means you have inherent worth that isn’t based on anything you do, produce, or achieve. Genesis 1 records God saying, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness,” and then confirms it: “So God created mankind in his own image… male and female he created them.” Because every human being carries that image, every person has value and dignity — regardless of their health, productivity, race, sex, or age. This single idea has shaped Western civilization’s understanding of human rights and human worth: not that you have to earn your value, but that you were given it at creation.

Yes, and it explains why in the same breath it calls us to take care of animals and the rest of creation. Genesis 1 describes God blessing the first humans and telling them to “rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the sky… and over every living creature that moves on the ground.” Being placed in charge of creation means people carry a unique responsibility and worth that the rest of creation doesn’t share — while also being tasked with caring well for that creation, not exploiting it. It’s not a license for cruelty; it’s closer to being handed the keys and told to manage the place well.

According to Genesis, it’s good — genuinely, intentionally good, not something to be ashamed of or escape from. After each stage of creation, the text says God looked at what he made and called it good; after creating humans, he called it “very good.” This directly counters an old idea (sometimes called Gnosticism) that the spiritual part of us is good while the physical — our bodies, this world — is somehow lesser or bad. The Bible’s storyline actually points toward a future physical renewal of creation, not an escape from it. Your body, and this physical world, were never the problem to begin with.

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. ² Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

This is the opening line of the entire Bible, and it sets the terms for everything that follows: there is a God, he existed before everything else, and everything that exists — including you — was made by him on purpose.

Mike Woodruff is the Lead Pastor of Christ Church. He’s been pastoring for over 26 years, and if you spend any time around him, you’ll notice he leads with humor as much as he does conviction — he’s the kind of guy who keeps track of his “close rate” on invitations like it’s a running joke on himself. He’s also deeply committed to people outside the four walls of the church, from training pastors overseas to sitting with people in the hardest, most complicated parts of their story — including forgiveness.

You don’t have to have it figured out to show up. Whether you’re wrestling with forgiving someone, wondering if you even want to, or just curious what this whole series is about, you’re welcome exactly as you are — no pressure, no expectations, and no one will ask you to share anything you’re not ready to share. Christ Church has campuses in Lake Forest, Highland Park, Grayslake, and Vernon Hills, Illinois, and we’d love to have you join us.