Tag Archives: beginning

Shedding Light #adventbookclub – Day 2

Advent, Advent Book Club, faith, God, hope, Jesus, Religion, theology, , , , , , ,

Genesis 1:1-5 (CEV)

The Story of Creation

1 In the beginning God
created the heavens
    and the earth.
2 The earth was barren,
    with no form of life;
it was under a roaring ocean
    covered with darkness.
But the Spirit of God
    was moving over the water.

The First Day

3 God said, “I command light to shine!” And light started shining. 4 God looked at the light and saw that it was good. He separated light from darkness 5 and named the light “Day” and the darkness “Night.” Evening came and then morning—that was the first day.

Earth Lights

John 1:1-5 (CEV)

The Word of Life

1 In the beginning was the one
    who is called the Word.
The Word was with God
    and was truly God.
2 From the very beginning
    the Word was with God.

3 And with this Word,
    God created all things.
Nothing was made
    without the Word.
Everything that was created
4     received its life from him,
and his life gave light
    to everyone.
5 The light keeps shining
    in the dark,
and darkness has never
    put it out.

The street light opposite our house has not been working for quite a while.  It was only when it was mended that we realised how much light it shone out, how much brighter it makes our part of the street, and our bedroom, when it is on.

A light shining in the dark.

2013-11-22 18.19.19

Illuming, guiding the way, showing what is there.

Maggie takes us to the words of Maria in The Sound of Music,

Let’s start at the very beginning, A very good place to start

There are many beginnings in life.  New starts, new possibilities, new paths.  All of them weave together as part of the whole.

These two passages show God was there in The Beginning.  The start of everything.  The start of us, before us – and has been there all along.  His light shining.  Nothing is going to put the light out.  God was and is.  Bringing light, illuming our way, shedding his light.

Thank you Lord,
that you are a light in my darkness,
showing the way.

Thank you
that you were here long before me
and will be here well after me,
that you are the eternal theme
woven through history,
thread through my story.

Light of the World

This year, several of us are reading Beginnings and Endings by Maggi Dawn and joining together to comment on it.  Do join us at the Adventbookclub Facebook page, follow #adventbookclub on Twitter or comment below.  If you are also reading and blogging on this book, let me know and I will link to your blog.

Right at the Beginning

God, Lectionary, , ,

In the beginning

In the beginning God

In the beginning God created

 

Right at the beginning, God could have done anything he wanted.  Sat there.  Just being.  The world, well there wasn’t a world, but life, the universe, everything was his to do as he wanted.  And God chose to create.  To make the world and us.  He made it not as we know it now, but in its perfect state.  A pure place,a place of delight, of peace and of love.  Life came to be.

Whatever we think of the creation accounts of Genesis, be they fact or poetry, we cannot get away from the understanding that God actively chose for the world to be, and was delighted by how it turned out.

How does that make us feel?

Special?  We are no accident or freak of nature.

Ashamed?  At how we have treated the world and made it far from perfect.

Inspired?  To seek to do what we can to create harmony and love where we are.

At the start of a new year we are bombarded by images and soundbites of new beginnings. May we be inspired by the God of new beginnings to live in love, peace and hope; to live in the pleasure God took; and to live with care.

Thank you Lord,

for making the world,

for loving crafting the wonders,

for allowing us to share.

As we begin another new year,

may we be inspired by your care in creation,

and live in appreciation of it.