Thursday, January 1, 2015, New Year's Day

GENESIS 1-3:

It Begins...the first 3 chapters cover the creation and the fall.  Everything is dark until God speaks, the first creation is the light.  Upon creation of the earth and the animals God gathers the dust and creates Man. In all his wonder, God sees that...

"It is not good for he man to be alone.  I will make a helper suitable for him"...But for Adam no suitable helper was found.  So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man's ribs...Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man...Adam and his wife were both naked and they felt no shame.

MATTHEW 1:

The chapter begins with the genealogy of Jesus.  Verse 18 starts the story with Mary's immaculate conception and Joseph's struggle to deal with his future wife being pregnant.  

Because Joseph was faithful to the law, and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly...an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, "Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. (1:19-20)

All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: "The Virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel"(1:23) 

JOURNAL:

Happy New Year!  So it begins...2015, while it is only a Man made date, it still has the feel of a clean slate as if all things are truly forgiven and all things are possible.  Yet I know that even today, this morning things will unravel, perfection will not be attained.  As both of these books begin...everything is good, all seems well.  Yet it falls apart, Adam and Eve can't obey and Jesus is eventually crucified as the people trade his freedom for the murderer Barrabas. But I have to ask...is that not the point all along?  It seems absurd that God would create something so good and perfect only to allow us to mess it all up.  Yet he does...

So while I begin the year with great hopes and renewed conviction of all the great strides I will make, I must also refer back to scripture and know it is somewhat of a flawed hope.  Perfection will never be attained, my great efforts will never achieve true righteousness.  I am back to the same place I've always been.  A flawed man, a sinner, whose only redemption is the perfect God who loves me.  

Yet, that is perfection. That is the strange, unexplainable beauty of the Gospel...man's failure and God's redemption.  I can take joy in the fact that God, makes it perfect.  Therefore I can say...Happy New Year!

"God loves You! So do I! Make it a great day!