and God said

Opening Prayer:  O God, you spoke into the darkness and things came to be.  Speak into my darkness, this day, and bring about your glorious light.  Breathe your Divine Breath into this pile of dust and bring me to life again and again and again. O Lord, I have no light, or breath, or life apart from you.  Unless you speak again this day, nothing of value or substance can, or will, come about.  Lord, have mercy.  Amen.

Scripture: Genesis 1:1-31

Journal: What is God saying to you through the scriptures today?  What is it bringing about?

Reflection: “And God said. . .” (Genesis 1:3, 6, 9, 11, 14, 20, 24, 26, 29)  It is a phrase that echoes throughout the entire creation narrative, reminding us that there is both design and intention woven into the very fabric of creation: First God speaks, and then things come into being.  Unfortunately, we seem to get it backwards more often than not; at least I do.

For some reason my default mode is to try and make things happen on my own and then invite God to join me, which sets me up to experience a lot of frustration and failure.  God breathed me into being, not vice versa.  He is the only One who can speak into the darkness and bring about the light.  Any light that I might have, or give, comes directly from him.  I have no light on my own, I am merely the moon that reflects the light of the sun.  Therefore, I would be wise to stop trying to make things happen on my own and just wait for him to speak and move and act.  It is how things were designed to work.  And if I can learn this simple, yet profound, truth, things will be a lot more fruitful and a lot less frustrating. 

Prayer

Closing Prayer: Speak, Lord, for unless you do, nothing of value can happen.  Amen.