Two Books That Start the Same Way
“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.”Genesis 1:1 (KJV)
The Bible opens with four words: “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” Thousands of years later John opens his Gospel with the same four words, and then he names who was there: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
John doesn’t leave it as poetry. “All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.” Paul says the same: “all things were created by him, and for him” (Colossians 1:16). The one who walked the roads of Galilee is the one who spoke light into the dark.
So the first page of the year is a good place to start, because it reminds us who gets the first word. Before your plans, your resolutions or your calendar, there is Christ. He was there at the beginning of everything, and he can be at the beginning of this year too.
New starts are hard when you think it all depends on you. It doesn’t. The one who made all things hasn’t forgotten how to make things new.
Read it yourself
Read Genesis 1:1 and John 1:1–3 side by side. Write down every word the two passages share.
What would it look like to give Christ the first word in this new year, before anything else gets it?
Lord Jesus, you were there in the beginning. Be first in my year, my days and my plans. Amen.