In the beginning

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

Genesis 1:1

 

In the beginning…

What exactly was ‘the beginning?’ We know what beginning means. It’s to start. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines it as…

the point or time at which something begins : a starting point

: the first part of something

beginnings : an early stage or period

The beginning…the starting point.

Can our human minds even begin to comprehend what the beginning of all things was? The beginning of life starts at conception. First there wasn’t a baby, then there was.

Only…there was before that baby was conceived. There was a sperm. There was an egg. There was two halves of that child that just hadn’t joined together yet. And before that…there was mom and dad, there was grandma and grandpa, there was everything. Earth, sky, air, people, plants, animals….everything. The beginning of that baby started at conception but there were begginings that took place before conception so that that baby could be conceived.

But ‘in the beginning’ there was nothing. Nothing.

Nothing is…nothing.

Not a thing.

If there’s nothing then there isn’t anything. If there wasn’t anything in the beginning than what was there? If I cup my hands together and hold nothing in them, they’re empty. We can imagine that was what God did. There in His hands was nothing. Not a thing. But when I hold nothing in my hands…I hold air. I hold light.

I may think I’m holding nothing but really I’m holding something. If I cup my hands and hold nothing in total darkness, I still hold air in my hands. I may not be able to feel it. I may not be able to see it. But it’s still there. While I hold nothing…I will always hold air.

God did not.

He held nothing.

If a true beginning is hard for the human mind to grasp…absolute nothing is even harder. There truly was nothing there. No air, no light, no…anything.

First there was nothing…then there was the heavens and the earth. From nothing our wonderful, and all powerful, God created everything.

And everything He did create.

Have you ever walked deep into the woods, so far in that you can’t see anything man made? There are no telephone poles, no high lines, no roads. When you get that deep into the woods there is nothing but creation. That deep in you find trees, grass, leaves, bugs, bushes, animals, air, water…creation.

There far from any man made thing, beyond what you may be wearing or carrying, is creation. What did it take to form a tree from nothing? A cloud? That pond of water? A butterfly?

The list is unending. Everything in creation was once created…made when there was nothing. And our Lord thought of everything. Trees seem to simply stand there doing little but providing shade and dropping leaves and seeds on us once a year and yet…they clean the air, they filter toxins, they make air, they keep the soil in place, they provide shade-so they cool us, some of them provide food. So this seemingly decorative tree…the same one we may pass day after day without giving thought to…is cooling us, giving us air so we can breathe, and it may be feeding us.

But it’s a tree!

Yes…and a pretty remarkable tree too. If you look into how a tree works it’s pretty miraculous. To think that this seemingly decorative thing has all these functions, has a vein system that carries food throughout its ‘body’…is astounding.

What had to go into making a tree? I can’t begin to do it. And to make a tree from nothing...Wow.

In the beginning there was nothing and then there was everything.

From nothing came everything. Everything we see, everything we touch, everything we are. Before everything there was nothing.

Only God.

Only Christ.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ^2 [a]He was in the beginning with God. ³ All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. ⁴ In Him was life…John 1:1-4

In the beginning…there was the word…there was Christ. Because of Him all things were made. Not only because of Him but through Him.

If something is done through someone…it took that person to make it happen. My children came into this world through me. Without me they couldn’t have been born. I had to grow them in my body so that they could get to the point where they could live on their own. They came through me.

All things were made through Christ. Apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. There was nothing made without Christ.

Because…In Him was life.

Life.

It was in Christ. It all came into being through Him.

Christ was life. It was in Him. When there was nothing…there was life. When there was nothing…there was Christ.

Through Him was created all things. So there…in the beginning…in that vast expanse of nothingness…there was Christ. And because there was Christ…there was life. He was life. All things came into being through Him. If life was in Him, and all things were created or made through him…then He is life. He is the life that gave life to everything.

In the beginning…

There was Christ.

Everything else was created through him. Everything else came because of him. The heavens and the earth were created through and because of Christ. Plants and animals, air and water were created…made…brought into existence…because of Christ. It was done through Him. He is the reason all those things were made.

And He is the reason human life was made. Through Him people were made.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ²He was in the beginning with God. ³ All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. ⁴ In Him was life…John 1:1-4

What if that verse read…

In the beginning was Christ….and Christ was God.  People came into being through Him, and apart from Him no person came into being…In Him was life

It doesn’t read that way but when it says all things, people are included in that. People were a part of all the things that came into being. Adam and Eve were part of creation.

And all things came through Christ.

In Him was life.

In the beginning…

There was Christ.