genesis 1

beginnings are so full of hope, latent potential waiting in the wings. that is what i feel reading the first chapter of genesis. hope, excitement for the future, dreams for what can be all jump at me from the poetry that is genesis 1. six times God looks at his creation and says it is good. affirmation is repeated throughout the poem. "Then God looked over all he had made, and he saw that it was very good!"

as the hope found in those verses jumped at me i began to ponder how in just two chapters the story would take a tragic turn. those hopes would be crushed. God's very good would be smeared with rebellion and blood. i thought about how this is the way life is for us: so often our hopes and dreams come falling down around us in the reality of the everyday crush. there is often not much that seems "very good."

and yet, this is our beginning. we have been lovingly made by a creator and called "very good." his smile frames our existence and his hopes for us dance in our dreams. we can remember where we have come from, how this story began, and hope can be restored through Christ's presence in our present. this story had a very good beginning. the middle has been sullied, but the story does not end with the middle. there is a climax leading to and ending more glorious than the beginning. redemptive time will end and all will be made new.

until then i will let my looking back inform my looking forward and find the hope that leads me to let Christ unleash that latent potential placed in me at the beginning for my life now.