One reason to tell the same story twice is that you left something out the first time you told it. When you tell the story a second time, your focus is different from the first telling.
In Genesis chapter 2, God tells the creation story a second time with a different focus. The first time He tells the creation story is in Genesis chapter one. There, He focuses on the reasonable order of creation. The second time He tells the creation story is in Genesis chapter 2. There, He focuses on the relational intent of the creation story. They’re the same story told from different perspectives.
Why is this important? Because it takes both perspectives to properly describe God. God is both reasonable and relational. He is both powerful and personable.
It’s easy to either make God so powerful He’s no longer personable, or to make God so relational that He’s no longer reasonable. We either make Him so much God that He’s no longer Father, or so much Father He’s no longer God.
Let’s not forget that God is both the God who made us and the God who wants to walk with us.
Bret Legg is the Teaching and Counseling Pastor at Warren Baptist Church in Augusta, GA.