In the beginning…

Whenever something begins, it also means that it is something new, and it can range from something small to something huge or even life changing. For example a jigsaw puzzle, which begins with the first piece. A painting begins with the first brush stroke. A song begins with the first note. A book begins on the first page. For me, a huge BEGINNING recently took place that most of you can probably relate to. A couple of weeks ago I began a new job, which is the reason why I haven’t posted anything new for a while. Being out of work is what gave me the time to start this blog in the first place and post all the things you’ll find here. I hope that over time, I can work out a schedule that includes time for this. Anyway, let's go back to the “beginning”.

I think that probably the most obvious of all beginnings, is the day. Each day begins in the morning. And for me, it’s my favorite time of day. I have always been a morning person, getting up early. It’s just the way I was made, but I love it. I rarely sleep in. And the few occasions when I have, I might wake up a little more rested, but I also feel like I’ve missed the best part of the day. Maybe it’s because early in the morning, you can actually see a transition from darkness to light, which I think is kind of cool, whereas, the light of the majority of the day, doesn’t really change too drastically, until the day comes to an end.

Another type of beginning that all of us experience, are relationships. A relationship usually begins with “hello,” but I always think that the most special relationships begin with a look. It’s probably how most of us fall in love, when someone else catches our eye, and looks at us in a special way, or we see someone, and without even knowing what it is, we see something different, something unique, something special in that other person. And so it begins. I won’t get into all the aspects of different types of relationships because, first of all, I’m not a relationship expert, and also because this would end up being way too lengthy.

We’ve all heard the expression, “love at first sight”. I really do believe it’s possible. Occasionally we meet someone and hit it off right away, but for the most part, a good relationship develops and evolves over a long period of time. I believe that the same thing can be said about our relationship with God. It definitely begins somewhere, but over time, just like the morning evolving from dark to light, we can often see our own relationship with God evolve over time. Yes, for some people, they may have some huge life-changing experience that I guess you could equate to “love at first sight”, but that isn’t usually the case for most of us. Whether someone is raised in a faith-filled environment, or they discover their faith later in life, it doesn’t really matter. The only thing that matters is that we are doing things to not only keep that relationship with God alive, but to foster it and help it to grow. Why? Because it’s probably the most important relationship we’ll ever have!

A relationship also has to have a firm foundation, meaning how it begins. There is plenty of scripture referring to how you need to build your house on rock so that it has a firm foundation (Matthew 7: 24-27 & Luke 6:46-49 are 2 good examples). These are in the Gospels to teach us how to begin to build that relationship with God.

It’s important to remember that, just like those passages tell us, some of us do start out by building our house (our relationships) on sand, and the rain and wind and the so-called "storms of life" destroys it. But the good news is that we can rebuild it, except the next time, we know to begin with a stronger foundation. Some of us may even have to begin this process over and over again. And that’s OK, as long as we keep trying.

It’s interesting when you think about it, but from God’s perspective, he has already laid the foundation for us before we were even born, and an indestructible one at that. But it is up to us to lay down our own foundation with him and then keep on building. Furthermore, he not only wants us to do just that, he’s expecting us to do that. 

Earlier, I mentioned how I like to see the morning evolve from dark to light. That holds true with our faith. There are times, even along the way, when we feel like we are going from dark to light and vice-versa. But as long as we continue making an effort to keep it alive, it will be ever evolving into something truly amazing.

One final thought on beginnings. With every beginning, there is also an end…except for one. When we begin a relationship with God, and continue throughout our lives, and he calls us home, we know that there is no end. Our salvation in the Heavenly kingdom is truly one beginning without end.