In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. (Genesis 1:1-2)
Happy New Year! Once again, we have an opportunity for new beginnings. And this is the time that I particularly love to revisit these opening verses of God’s love story with creation.
Before there was any created life, the earth had no shape and it was empty. There was this “thing”’called the deep or the waters, and in the ancient of ancient worlds, such waters were considered the symbol for chaos and disorder. So, in the beginning, it was believed that chaos and disorder and murkiness already existed. And yet…and yet, in the midst of formlessness and emptiness and chaos, there was always GOD. And the SPIRIT of God – the BREATH of God – hovering over it all.
Some Jewish commentators liken this “hovering” of God’s Spirit to that which a mother bird does above its nest of unhatched eggs. It spreads its wings and broods over the life that is yet to come. These are moments of time that are filled with great expectation, with excitement, with a pulsing and a vibrating of the mother bird’s energy as it knows life is about to burst forth on the scene at any moment.
2024 is a year pulsing with the possibilities for life among us at Peace. God’s Spirit is hovering, brooding, getting ready to shape moments that are yet formless and fill those which are yet empty. God is about to do a new thing among us as we join the Spirit in calling forth new leaders among the staff and a Pastor for the community. God is continuing to shape ministries previously created and fill them with the touch of human lives.
What are we to do in this time? Believe. Have faith. Listen for God’s voice calling us forth and answer the call. Look for God’s activity among us and find a way to participate. Encourage one another to love and good deeds. And do not give up on the habit of meeting together. (borrowed from the exhortation to the NT Hebrews community)
For God is a god of life…of possibilities…of opportunities to be recreated and to create.
Happy New Year! And may we be on the edge of our seats with the Spirit of God as life continues to abound at Peace and through Peace.
