The Start - Genesis 1:1-31

“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” (Genesis 1:1)

LOVE made everything.  Time, light, movement, sand, butter, computers and those weird tools that girls use to curl their eyelashes – everything.  It was all utterly fantastic.  It was so good that this expansive LOVE wanted some company to enjoy it with.  LOVE wants to be known.  So to complete the world LOVE made not just something, but someone: Adam, then Eve, then much later, you.

God made you so he already knows you inside-out, (actually better than you know yourself).  But God wants you to know him.  We are invited in to a relationship with him.  In prayer, today, simply thank God for making you and loving you.  God doesn’t make errors and he doesn’t screw-up.  If you find yourself struggling to believe that God LOVEs you then consider Jesus, who God exchanged for you, so great is his LOVE for you.  And ask God for his help to believe.

“So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” (Genesis 1:27)

Imagine if LOVE was your best friend, you ruled the world, every day was filled with wonder and excitement and adventure, you had everything you wanted, you had meaningful tasks to do, and you were blissfully in LOVE with the most beautiful soulmate you’d ever clapped eyes on.  That’s how it was.  That’s how LOVE meant life to be.  LOVE breathes self in to us and we become truly alive.

LOVE wants the very best for our lives.  He wants us to flourish and be happy.  Whatever circumstances we find ourselves in today, the picture of being totally at ease in the wonderful garden of Eden is a picture for us of our relationship with Jesus.  Remarkably, countless Christians have found that this can be our inner reality in our hearts even when our outer reality is full of suffering. 

To be at peace with LOVE, to simply breathe and enjoy his presence, is the greatest gift in life.  As we pray today take a moment to be at peace with LOVE.  Let’s allow LOVE to breathe life in to us.

“…the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.” (Genesis 2:7).

Learning to live with LOVE wasn’t easy.  LOVE didn’t want a robot.  LOVE wanted a relationship.  So LOVE held nothing back from Adam and Eve – everything was available – but also gave them the gift of freewill: total freedom to choose not to do the wrong thing.  LOVE wanted real intimacy so they all had mutual trust and responsibility.  Adam and Eve’s first task was to name every animal and do a spot of gardening.  I like to think that the duck-billed platypus was Eve’s favourite.

LOVE has given us all the ability to choose.  We are not animals who simply react on the basis of instinct.  Often we can’t choose our circumstances.  Stuff happens in the world around us that’s difficult and painful.  But we don’t have to simply react to it.  We can choose how to respond.  We are response-able.  There can be no true freedom without responsibility. 

LOVE wants to help us to make the right choices in life.  As we pray today let’s ask LOVE to be our guide in life, helping us choose how to respond to everything we encounter.  The results of a life lived this way will be powerful and surprising.  This is how Jesus lived.  We’ll find ourselves joining LOVE’s creative work, free from all guilt and shame.
“The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.” (Genesis 2:25)