“In the Beginning” by Melanie Rigney (@melanierigney)

Green Lake Sunrise by Melanie Rigney

“In the Beginning” by Melanie Rigney (@melanierigney)

The Seventh Day in the Octave of Christmas

Children, it is the last hour; and just as you heard that the antichrist was coming, so now many antichrists have appeared. Thus we know this is the last hour. (1 John 2:18)

Let the heavens be glad, and the earth rejoice! (Psalm 96:11a)

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. (John 1:1)

Piety

Glory be to the Father, and the Son, and to the Holy Spirit/as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

Study

So we bid farewell to 2019 and its joys, struggles, triumphs, and challenges. Will it prove to be the last hour foretold in 1 John? We can’t know, of course; God’s time and plans are on a plane beyond our understanding.

What we can understand is beginnings. And beginnings typically grow out of endings. It was likely no coincidence that John’s gospel begins with the same three words that open Genesis: “In the beginning.”

• We begin to trust God more and end our futile attempts to control every aspect of our earthly lives.
• We begin to love our neighbor more and end our criticism of his homily style, her choice of clothing, their political views.
• We begin to value ourselves more as children of the Father and end our conscious or unconscious destruction of our bodies.
• We begin to spend more time with the Lord and work to reduce our participation in today’s self-focused culture.

In the beginning was the Word, John tells us. And the Word is all we really need in the middle, and at the end as well.

Action

Include a God-focused beginning in the New Year’s resolutions you make today.