In the beginning God…

Genesis 1:1

Before you read another word, look up from the page and spend some time reflecting on these four opening words from the Book of Genesis, In the beginning God. Most of the time, you would have already read ahead without thinking of why all of scripture began with these particular and maybe even peculiar words. 

What were some thoughts that came to mind as you paused and reflected on the words In the beginning God? Maybe images of a dark world without form and void came to mind. Maybe the word beginning brought to mind the opening scene of a movie you recently watched or the first page of a novel you’ve been reading. Maybe it’s hard for you to imagine what a beginning looked like before God had even created the world? What’s important for us is not necessarily what it was like before God began forming the world, but that God was already there before he supernaturally spoke it into existence. 

As we allow ourselves to meditate for a few moments on the beginning of our world, the first thing we notice is that scripture doesn’t allow us to imagine it without the presence of God. Before anything was, there was God. Even more astonishingly, before the beginning ever was, God had already chosen the you to eventually be a part of it. 

“…even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world…” (Eph. 1:4a).

As a songwriter, ideas for lyrics and melodies come to me in unique ways that seem to defy any objective formula or rational explanation. As much as I wish that inspiration came in some sort of easy to open, pre-packaged form, it seems more ghost-like in nature. Before a lyric or melody is conceived of or composed in my mind, an image will materialize from any variety of sources and comprise the grain of a song that will someday become realized in recorded fruition. 

Very incompletely, this illustrates our chosen-ness by God. Before he had ever composed the opening notes that would comprise his creation song, he had imagined us in his infinite mind to “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth” (Gen. 1:28). Equally as thought provoking is this: not only did God choose us before he chose the world he would create, he also planned what our purpose would be as his chosen people. 

“…that we should be holy and blameless before him. (Eph. 1:4b).

To be a chosen son or daughter of God is to become holy and blameless, or to say it another way, set apart and righteous before Him and for Him. The reason why God chose you to be holy and blameless is because he can only make his home with those who are set apart and righteous like himself. 

Of course, God knew that when he chose you that another decision had to be made to ensure that his presence with you would remain.  

“In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will…” (Eph. 1:5).

So there’s that word predestine. It makes some of us uncomfortable, but what the apostle Paul intended when he wrote to the church in Ephesus was not to begin a theological debate but to assure them that belonging to God since the beginning didn’t happen by some random stroke of luck or anything they did to finally be granted God’s favor. No, God loved us before he made us, but had to plan to adopt us because the sin we were born into meant God wasn’t automatically our Father at birth. So to be predestined means that in the beginning God meant for you to be his and for him to be with you because he conceived you, loved you, chose you, planned for you, and purpose to be with you. Forever. 

So, as you look forward to Christmas and New Year’s this year, remember that all of your beginnings will not begin in the absence of God’s presence. In the same way that God was present before he presented the world, God will continue to go before you in all things. This helps remind you that all those beginning things that cause so much fear, unrest and anxiety will not be entered into alone or carried out in isolation. 

Reflect

How will reflecting on In the beginning God help you as you anticipate the New Year? If God chose you before speaking the world into existence, how much more can you trust his promise to be with you through the unknowns that loom ahead in the new year and beyond? As you reflect on all the potential beginnings that lie ahead, how will meditating on the presence of God help change how you approach new challenges and unknown changes?