As It Was in the Beginning . . .

This week, endings and beginnings get jumbled together. The last month on the calendar coincides with the first season of the Christian year. The new year coincides with ending fiscal cycles. School semesters end and begin. We plan to relinquish poor habits and achieve new goals.

Today’s reading frames God’s relationship with Jesus-followers in cosmic time. All complicated temporal and spiritual cycles pale in importance compared to God’s cosmic scheme, from “before the foundation of the world” to “the fullness of time.” God’s expectations and desires for the universe—and for us—are set between a time “in the beginning,” prior to creation itself and when all will finally be gathered up in Christ.

As disciples of Jesus Christ, we are a redeemed people that exists for “the praise of the glory” of God. The Greek word for glory is doxus, the root of the word doxology. This term is familiar to many of us as something we sing during worship services: “Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost. . . .” But we cannot just praise God on Sunday mornings. As disciples, our whole lives are to be lived in praise of God’s glory. How joyous, humbling, and overwhelming this can be!

Can you recall a time when you were consumed by efforts to complete a seemingly endless list of tasks to prevent a sense of personal failure or disappointment to others rather than by preparing for God’s glorious gift—the gift of God’s own Beloved? Let us commit this new year to reimagining our lives framed by praise for God’s glorious grace and love and to living as redeemed people in the face of the challenges of our daily lives.