Beginning

Today’s Reading: Genesis 1:1-3:24

“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” (Genesis 1:1) What a way to start a book right?!? In any story the most logical place to start is in the beginning. This is where God chooses to introduce all the characters in this play we refer to as life and He starts with none other than Himself. He kinda has to considering He’s the only one that even exists in the beginning!

I want you to think about the importance of firsts for a moment. Your first kiss, your first date, the first time you met your spouse, they’re all really special right? Well, here in Genesis we have all the first firsts! Right here, in the beginning, is where we first meet God and what is He doing? Creating. He is creating something out of nothing. He is simply speaking and something that was mere thought, imagination, and idea; becomes.

“The Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.” (Genesis 1:2) Did you know that the water we have today is the exact same water that is spoken of here in this verse. Though water changes forms, liquid, solid and gas, there is no more or less of it than when the world began. Talk about recycling! God is good! I believe that He still hovers over the waters. Think about how often you’ve gotten an epiphany when near water, especially running water, like in the shower or washing dishes. I believe this is because He is still hovering over those waters, waiting to wash our spiritual eyes clean so that we can see Him more clearly.

This is my prayer each morning, to see Him clearly through the din and chaos of the storm that is my life. To see Him is pure bliss and blessing, it is clarity and understanding without knowing. He is peace and love and joy and to focus on Him brings peace and love and joy. He is what He was and He will be what He is, the great I Am, creator of something, from nothing.

Another part of my morning routine is reading a short devotional on my smart phone. One of the verses in that devotional today really struck me because it completely contradicted what I had just read in Genesis 1:27: “So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created them; male and female He created them.” 2 Corinthians 3:18 (from the devotional) reads: “And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into His likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” How is it that we were originally made “in His image” only to end up “being transformed into His image”? God’s word is 100% truth, so how can both statements be true and co-exist? God’s answer to this question has led me down quite the blessed rabbit trail this morning!

He said: “From dust to dust”.

So I looked at Genesis 3:19 again “for you are dust, and to dust you shall return”.

Dust! It dawned on me how the key to the question is in the many separations! God spends the first two full days of time creating and taking what He has created and separating it. He creates Light and separates it from the darkness. He took the water and separated it, placing an expanse or canopy between them and called it sky. He then took the water below the heavens and once again separated it exposing the dry earth… dust. Adam from the dust and finally Eve, from Adam’s rib

Oh this precious dust from wence we came! Dry powdery earth, so seemingly humble… and yet… from this very stuff came all of creation! Every scrap of food Adam and Eve ate grew out of this very dust. In fact, the very essence of life itself must exist within it. Plants get much of their nutrients and water from dust, it is critical for life! Yet it is the very thing that we tread upon day after day. We toil upon it in order to gain more gold, more stuff, more more more. Yet in heaven, gold is the pavement in the streets and the dust, us, treads upon it! How backwards things are here. The waters below acting like a mirror, reflecting the waters above from wence we came; everything is reversed.

When we attempt to comb our hair in a mirror we must comb it in the opposite direction that it looks like we should… perhaps life on this side of the canopy is the same. In order to comb through the tangles of life we must go counter to what looks right in the mirror. In order to go the right direction we must heed the second Adam’s rib we were made from and go; not in the direction our own deceiving eyes point, but rather the direction Christ’s rib, the Living water, points us toward moving always in His fluid direction.

In Acts, another beginning of sorts, we read that the Living waters from heaven come accompanied by a sound “like a mighty rushing wind and it filled the house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.” (2:2-4) In Genesis 1:9-10 we see the waters that the Spirit (or in Hebrew, Ruach) of God hovered over, being separated this second time exposing the dry land. The fact that it is dry is a critical point that we cannot miss here because it exposes a pivotal truth. When dust is dry it is empty, perfectly prepared to receive water from heaven. And until that happens, no seed is able to grow in that dust. It is only in the presence of water that seeds shed their protective outer coating and sprout the life that was lying dormant within. In the same way, we too are empty, dry, and unable to foster life within us; or grow the seed of God’s word without the Living Water of His Ruach flowing through us and watering that seed, giving it the nutrient lifeblood it desperately needs. Without Ruach we are simply dry empty vessels waiting to be filled, just like the clay jars at the wedding in Cana waiting to be filled with water, which Jesus then turned into the choicest of wines, saved for the very end of the party. This is the first of Jesus’ countless miracles and is a symbol of our being filled with His Ruach.

Are you like me, are you beginning to feel as if perhaps this whole spirit-filled thing might be a bigger deal than what it has been made out to be lately? Like maybe God’s trying to tell us more about this tremendous gift that He’s given us. That it goes farther than the cross and the grave. Maybe it transcends all time and space and is the biggest of all the gifts ever given! I don’t know about you, but I don’t know very much about Ruach yet… but I’m really looking forward to learning more about who He is and why He is mentioned in these three key firsts in the story of all time.