Beginnings That Change Everything
Let it be with me according to your word. ~Luke 1:38
In the beginning, God created it all. All.Of.It. From nothing. He created everything. And he did it by saying ‘let there be…’ and things just appeared. Air, clouds, dirt, oceans, deserts, birds and cows and flies.
[pullquote width=”300″ float=”right”]Stars and angels sat on the grandstands, waving their pompoms and squealing with joy. [/pullquote]God seemed to wave his magic wand and stuff appeared. It was like a show. In the book of Job, God said that the stars sang and the angels shouted while he was creating. Stars and angels sat on the grandstands, waving their pompoms and squealing with joy.
What a beginning!
Beginnings don’t always feel that way, that jubilant. Because with every beginning there is change. Sometimes that change is good; it immediately feels right, like the world is “wholer” somehow. Birth of a child. Promotion at work. New house.
And sometimes the change is an immediate downer. You can sense the heaviness coming onto the back of your neck. Foreboding, menacing. A death of someone certainly ushers in the beginning of a new normal.
But change is a funny thing. How we perceive it can shift over time. A new beginning cannot be quickly judged. It can’t be placed into either a plus or minus column until time has nourished it, smoothed out the charred edges. Time will tell if the beginnings were endings, if the change was a good one or one you regret.
Mary changed her whole life, and all of mankind’s, with her words ‘let it be.’ She heard the angel’s words. She believed them.
The baby was more than her first born, more than just an addition to the family. Yet for 30 years few knew of the magnificence of the change that was to come. Few knew that this little baby, this beginning, would change the course of history.
The manger-beginning took decades to settle itself into a column of good or bad. In the heavens there was singing, celebrating. Their God, who the heavenly hosts worshipped with all their being, became a human. It was amazing! It was a beginning like none other. (Ok, maybe creating the world out of nothing was up there in the top ten with this!)
But the event so widely celebrated in heaven would not shatter the top ten list until 30 years later when the world started noticing. This beginning, which would seem to end on the Cross, became the biggest plus in the history of mankind.
And it continues to change people, to change lives.
Being confident in this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. ~Philippians 1:6
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A great way to start a new day. Thank you!
You are welcome, Sis! It is certainly a good morning!
“Mary changed her whole life, and all of mankind’s, with her words ‘let it be.’ She heard the angel’s words. She believed them.” Cause and effect. I love this perspective, Diane.
Thanks, Jen. I forgot to write that waiting to see takes patience…hmmmm. That’s for another post!
And a fine post that will be!
I’ve always marveled at Mary, a mere girl, submitting it all. I’m a servant…may your word to me be fulfilled. So true that her whole life and mankind’s were changed with that act and those words. Thanks for the reminder of what it looks like to give our whole life to God.
You’re so right, Ter. Her whole life was given to it. Sometimes I wonder if I could ever get to that place where I would give it all. Hmmm. Guess I would have to rely on God for help with that. Hmmmm, again!!
“But change is a funny thing. How we perceive it can shift over time.” Isn’t that the truth? In thinking about Mary, I wonder how the things she pondered in her heart changed over the years.
Fascinating, thoughtful post. Thank you.
Thanks, Gretchen. It’s so funny when I talk to young women, just starting out, how their perspective on how their lives are changing is so different than mine. Starting a career, moving out of mom and dad’s house, meeting the man they will marry – all that is change seems so different through years of perspective.
A new beginning cannot be quickly judged. It can’t be placed into either a plus or minus column until time has nourished it, smoothed out the charred edges.
I’m so quick to categorize the change I’m going through as good or bad without even giving it time to settle in because change (good or bad) is uncomfortable in the moment. However the change is about so much more than a moment in time. God’s definition of time and ours is so different and I can be fretful and impatient.
Thank you for this, it really soothed my soul.
Tara – sometimes in the heat of the moment, we are so quick to judge, aren’t we? Whether something is good or bad, right or wrong, valuable or worthless. Trusting that God’s definition, as you so aptly wrote, is better than ours.