“In the beginning God created…” (Genesis 1:1)
The Bible is the greatest story ever told! It is the wonderful story of God and us…His creation…His people. It is not God’s story. That story is more than any one book could ever hold. God “was” before this story begins. He has no beginning. He has always been. This story is God’s story about us and the world we live in. It is a story about a loving God pursuing His people who lost their way and needed rescuing (oops…spoiler alert). The climax of this story is the death and resurrection of Jesus which we are thinking about during the Lenten season. Everything before this event in the story leads up to this and everything after it refers back to it.
So, let’s walk together over the next 40 days and 6 Sabbaths through this story. Yes. I want to challenge us to look at the ONE story from the beginning to the end. The “whole enchilada”. An overview…the bigger picture! It is my prayer that we will be able to see the story as one and gain some insight into how the Scripture is unified in theme and purpose. It is the story of true love revealed and experienced!
It is an old story that has been written over thousands of years and includes many parts…66 Books…1189 chapters! It is a story told by God and, although He is the Author, many writers were called on to contribute to this story under God’s inspiration and direction. God is already present when our story begins and He remains the main character in this story from “the beginning”, as the Scripture tells us. He also will continue “to be” after this story finishes (spoiler alert…we can too). He has no ending. He is eternal. This story is our story narrated by God.
All great stories have great beginnings. The common phrase, “Once upon a time…” often takes us to that place. It’s a place “A long, long time ago…” Great beginnings are very important because they tell us the foundational things that we will need to know and remember throughout the story. It is usually about origins and almost always introduces the main characters that we will follow.
The story of the Bible has a great beginning! It takes us back to the “beginning”…our beginning. It is not the beginning of God. As stated earlier, His story is bigger than any One story can hold. This is the beginning of our story. Since He has always been He is already there when our story starts.
As we start this journey together we are reminded in the opening line of our story that God started it all. He created this world and all that is in it. He created us…and that means you! We have His fingerprints all over us. He thought this world up and brought it into being. We must understand that The Bible is not a science book concerned with theories and hypotheses. It is a Truth Book concerned with answering the bigger questions in life like, “Who are we?”, “Where did we come from?”, and “Why are we here?”.
Our story begins by giving us a foundational Truth that is essential in understanding the rest of the story. Don’t miss it as we start our Lenten season together. God started it. “In the beginning God created…”. You are created by God. Make no mistake about it. You are His idea. You are His handiwork (Psalm 139:13-16).
Rest in this Truth today as you begin this Lenten journey:
This is your story.