In the Beginning — Sue Donaldson
“In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth.” Genesis 1:1
In the beginning was the beginning, all started by the One Who could make it happen.
Why? I’m not quite sure. It may be the first question I ask in heaven.
I’ve not wrestled with the fact that He did create the world. Who else could put together something so complicated, beautiful, detailed and delicate? If you’ve lost the wonder of it all, go outside. Wherever you live.
God created the earth, and then a bit later, He created us. But why, exactly? Here’s one take: We were created for our Creator.
“God created us to orbit around Him, to center our lives on Him.” Tim Keller
I don’t think of myself in orbit, except right before thirty guests make their appearance at the annual Christmas Eve Soup Potluck. Ask my kids. They’ve seen me in that kind of orbit.
I do know that when centered on Him, I’m where I need to be. At peace. Waiting, with joy for whatever may happen next, orbiting around Him.
My brother figured this out at age 28. He began to orbit his life around His Creator. In his youth, he had been a rebel and a grief to his mom. But God kept after him until he succumbed to love and began his rightful journey around the Son.
Many years later at 70, Hyatt made an outward gesture to show where his heart has remained all these years: he got his ear pierced. An unusual beginning for someone at 70? Maybe.
Here’s why he did it.
In Old Testament times, when a slave was released by his master and yet chose to remain a slave—for life, by choice—he showed it by getting his ear pierced. He was now a bondslave, bound by devotion to his master. Sound familiar? Paul called himself a bondslave of Christ in Romans 1:1—”Paul, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated to the gospel of God.”
Hyatt wanted reminding for the rest of his life: he was God’s bondservant.
Ready for a new beginning? God made you for it. Let me know if this is the first day of your new beginning orbiting around the One Who made you and loved you enough to die for you. I’d love to pray for you.
“For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16