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January 2, 2020

As It Was in the Beginning . . .

Anne Burkholder   |   Read Psalm 147:12-20

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Lectionary Week
December 30, 2019—January 5, 2020
Scripture Overview

Jeremiah delivers happy news, a promise from the Lord of a brighter future day. God will bring back the scattered peoples to their homeland, and their mourning will turn into joy. The psalmist encourages those in Jerusalem to praise God for all that God has done. God gives protection, peace, and the law to the children of Israel. The author of Ephesians encourages readers with confidence in God’s eternal plan. God’s will is to send Christ and adopt us into God’s family. We have been sealed with the Holy Spirit. The opening to John helps us understand the eternal scope of God’s plan. From the beginning, the Word has been with God but then becomes flesh and lives among us to reveal divine glory.

Questions and Suggestions for Reflection

Read Jeremiah 31:7-14. How do you continue to celebrate God’s goodness, even if the Christmas season has been difficult for you?
Read Psalm 147:12-20. What is your doxology—your command and faith claim—today?
Read Ephesians 1:3-14. Consider the author’s question, Who makes up your family? Do you define your family by looking back to your heritage or looking forward to your legacy and future generations’ inheritance?
Read John 1:1-18. What does it mean for you that Jesus is cocreator in the beginning and takes on human life and suffering as Emmanuel?

Respond by posting a prayer .

Psalm 147:12-20

12 Worship the LORD, Jerusalem! Praise your God, Zion! 13 Because God secures the bars on your gates, God blesses the children you have there. 14 God establishes your borders peacefully. God fills you full with the very best wheat. 15 God issues his command to the earth God’s word speeds off fast! 16 God spreads snow like it was wool; God scatters frost like it was ashes; 17 God throws his hail down like crumbs who can endure God’s freezing cold? 18 Then God issues his word and melts it all away! God makes his winds blow; the water flows again. 19 God proclaims his word to Jacob; his statutes and rules to Israel. 20 God hasn’t done that with any other nation; those nations have no knowledge of God’s rules. Praise the LORD!

Unless otherwise indicated, scripture quotations are from the Common English Bible. Copyright © 2011 Common English Bible. Used by permission.

I listened with awe as a young man shared his testimony. His wife died from cancer several years ago. He spoke of the holiness of the moment of her death; he praised God and spoke of his growing faith.

Doxology is a form of praise that we often sing on...

Praise to you, O God, our Creator, Christ, and Holy Ghost! I praise you amid my struggles, even as I praise you in times of laughter and peace. Amen.


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