In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.
John 1:1-5
The Beginning
The message of “the beginning” seems like a novel place to start. The writer of John does so to set the stage for the witness they are about to provide. To begin at the beginning though, feels almost faux pa.
As if every story needs a beginning. As if “Once upon a time” seems the most fitting for any story, as a way to let us, the reader, know that this is, in fact, the beginning.
When I read books these days though there hardly are these classic opening lines to let us know the story has started. Sometimes we are just dropped in the middle, expected to catch up as we journey through the pages. We miss the beginning, but the beginning is revealed to us through the story.
These are not origin stories, but instead stories of understanding, stories of worth, and stories of validation. However, in an introduction to the Word, we get things up front, for how can we truly understand the story of us, if we do not first know the story of our Lord? How can we find our own worth if we do not identify it with the manner of creation and beginning of the one whom we believe in?
Our beginning cannot be marked by time or any manner of measurement really. It is marked by the action of a divine creator who sought within themselves to create, not just a place, but a creature— a creature within whom their entire love could reside and who could be endowed within the very Spirit that God themselves were. We find our understanding, our worth, and our validation in the story of Christ.
If our beginning is marked by our creator, then so is our worth. If creation is the beginning of a journey then we mark ourselves on that journey as the embodiment of they who created us.
Except the God that created us is spiritual and we are physical. So God sought to give us form and an image of themselves that exists beyond the bounds of time. As a potter does with clay, so too were we formed and molded. The image of humanity was created in the beginning as an act of creation and an act of love.
We are connected by the image of love within us, connected by the Word. We are connected by creation and by the love of the creator who gave us life. We are reminded as much about the love God shed upon the earth in creation as we are about God’s love that we feel shed upon us now. Creation is not just a story of how we got here, but a story of why we are here as well. We are here because God created us and because God loves us.
The Word, Jesus Christ becomes the nature of worth within each of us. For if we have been created in God’s image, and Jesus is with God and is God, then it is the Spirit within each of us that makes us truly worth everything God offers upon us. It is this worth that teaches us we are worthy to be cared for and to love ourselves. We open an understanding of self-love to know truly what it means to love others.
Life comes into being through Christ, and through Christ, our life has gained meaning. Discover in that dwelling place what your soul needs to reconnect with the beginning, with the Word so that your spirit may be renewed.
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