In the Beginning..."

[HKHaugan]

“In the Beginning…”

 If you think about it, that is concentrate on the idea behind those words, everything is covered by those words. That is, everything. Everything has a beginning. Each of us has a beginning. We can even date it. Our calendars get us to think in terms of every day being a new day, month and year. In the space called time we talk of a new age dawning. But not only that, every thought, idea, concept has a beginning. Every emotion has a beginning. Every plan, every choice and decision and every next moment has a beginning. Beginning dominates every piece of time and time itself has a beginning. Beginning is a built-in reality in existence. Beginning is the source of newness. We talk of having a novel idea, approach and attitude. Consumers are always looking for the newest model, latest fad, look, style and being the ‘new you.’ If something is fresh, it’s new. It is also the latest, different, engaging and never seen and done before. Even what is normal can be changed to the ‘new normal.’ We desire things to be ‘up-to-date.’ Each of us was created to be new, to experience new and create ways to be new. To be new for God and to be new for others. It’s built into us. Beginning something new is simply being who we are in Christ.

 All in all, what beginning says to us is that everything has a horizon offering potential and opportunity.

 All this ‘beginning’ talk is founded in the Bible. It starts with ‘beginning.’ That fact means the Gospel of John, which starts the same way, has a uniqueness in its purpose. It makes the other Gospels, and the rest of Scripture, places to sort out everything that is both seen and unseen. Each of the books of the Bible has a beginning and is full of beginning experiences. How we perceive life around us, seek our place in it, prioritize and set goals, is wrapped up in a process of beginning and achieving.

The Gospel of John leads us into how we do the process. Its immediate appeal declares how that process is spiritual. It is the Word, a spiritual statement about the mind of God verbalized. Word is not only a mind, it is a person, an ultimate person. A Person behind all persons. A Person who is before physical existence and out of Whom physical and invisible comes. Namely, the Word is God the Son, Jesus. Beginning is a ‘looking-ahead’ word.

‘Beginning’ makes newness an active quality of God. He initiates the process of beginning in us. Creating the image of God in humanity is God’s beginning of those He wants to be like Him, beginning and creating. If ‘beginning’ has its start in God, then it follows logically that whatever we think, choose, decide and do should have its foundation with God’s understanding of it. Our mind, heart and spirit are the processing agents He built into us to facilitate creativity and its products. To realize that every moment is a creative moment we can begin in it to think how it can be used. It is the attitude we have that jumps at the opportunity to use or to fear it, to accept it or deny it, look forward or backward and become mobile or immobile. Let’s process an idea as an example.

First, consider God is relational by nature. He is Father, Son and Holy Spirit (we are images with mind, heart and spirit made to relate). If we are made in the relational image of God, then what we can create relationally is carrying out the purpose for which we are made. That’s basic. That is why He offers us a relationship with Him. How we relate to Him determines how we relate to others.   Relationship is the basis of how we live out our humanity. The education we get, the social agenda we set, the career and economic support we choose, promote our relational experience with God and others. They all have beginnings that create beginnings and every next moment is given us to practice being beginners who carry newness into the process. Nothing is ever the ‘same-old-same-old. It’s the heart that determines our attitude and attitude is what determines whether or not we activate out creativity. How do we know that? Look at what happens when God decides something.  

“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.³

 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. ⁴ God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. ⁵ God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.

⁶ And God said, “Let there be a vault between the waters to separate water from water.” ⁷ So God made the vault and separated the water under the vault from the water above it. And it was so. ⁸ God called the vault “sky.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the second day.

⁹ And God said, “Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear.” And it was so. ¹⁰ God called the dry ground “land,” and the gathered waters he called “seas.” And God saw that it was good.

¹¹ Then God said, “Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds.” And it was so. ¹² The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. ¹³ And there was evening, and there was morning—the third day.

¹⁴ And God said, “Let there be lights in the vault of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark sacred times, and days and years, ¹⁵ and let them be lights in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth.” And it was so. ¹⁶ God made two great lights—the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. ¹⁷ God set them in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth, ¹⁸ to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good. ¹⁹ And there was evening, and there was morning—the fourth day.

²⁰ And God said, “Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the vault of the sky.” ²¹ So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living thing with which the water teems and that moves about in it, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. ²² God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth.” ²³ And there was evening, and there was morning—the fifth day.

²⁴ And God said, “Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: the livestock, the creatures that move along the ground, and the wild animals, each according to its kind.” And it was so. ²⁵ God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.

²⁶ Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals,^[a] and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”

²⁷ So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.

²⁸ God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”

²⁹ Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. ³⁰ And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds in the sky and all the creatures that move along the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food.” And it was so.

³¹ God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day.

2 Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array. ² By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. ³ Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.

 He gave us a mandate to rule over all the earth (Gen.1:26). It seems logical therefore, that each of us made in His image should be creative. It’s in our bones to do so. Let’s get at it.