{Be Confident} New Year + New Beginnings + It was GOOD

God created the heavens and the earth.

He separated light from dark and water from sky.  He designated dry ground to rise up in places and molded rock formations and landscapes to be abounding in breathtaking beauty.  He designed plantlife in all of its green and beckoned it  produce fruits, flowers, colors and seeds of all kinds.

He gave life to the sea and decorated each species of fish unique to the one before it.  He gave flight to the the birds of the air and crafted the beasts of the field.

His work was original, it was incredibly detailed, wonderfully made and completely new.

God looked at his handiwork as an artist, as a creative, and saw that it was good.

Then, God created man.

From the dust of the ground, he created him.  Looking at his creation, he breathed life into it.  But…. something was missing.

He gave the man instruction, and allowed him to work in the gardens of his newly crafted creations.

But still… something was missing.

God brought animals of every kind to the man allowing him to know them and name them.

But still… something was missing.

The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.” Genesis 2:18

It was the first time in all of creation that God looked at what he had created and said, “No, this is not good the way it is, it can be better.”

As an artist or creative- I’m sure you’ve done that before.  I do that all of the time!  I look at my work and think to myself- “No, no, no– this doesn’t cut it- It can be better!” Usually right then and there I crumble my work and start all over again.  In my humanity I do that frequently.  But God is different, God is sovereign.

When you’re the creator of the universe, and lacking in nothing, completely perfect and without fault, you can’t create things that are bad.  Instead, you simply create more good.

God did just that- and created another human.   This one different that the first created.

And He saw that his creation was good.

I recapped this story for two reasons.  The first is because it’s all about newness.  New heavens, new earth, new animals, new plants, new humans….. new.  All of those things had a fresh start!  2014 is coming to an end, and tomorrow starts a brand new year.  It’s a theoretical fresh start for us as well.  2015 is saturated in possibility and potential.  It’s completely new.

The second reason is because in the midst of the newness, God saw that something was not good.  He saw that though there was a fresh beginning, something was missing after he created Adam.  That something was community.

When I was pouring over scripture searching for verses about community, this story kept coming to mind.  Sure- Adam and Eve were the first married couple, and the story is one about how the world came into existence, but there is something extremely beautiful about how God determined to create Eve.  He saw that Adam was alone, lacking someone like himself-but different- and God saw that man being alone was not good.  So he created more.  This is the first picture of human community we have in all of scripture- which also shows the importance of it.

Community is essential.

It’s such a simple thing, but saturated in significance.

It doesn’t matter if you’re an introvert, or an extrovert, people oriented or task oriented- you need people.  We all do!  Over this *new* month on January, we’re going to be talking about why we need community, how we can build authentic community, and what community is.

As you ring in the New Year with you and yours, wearing a little sparkle and that fabulous new outfit, my prayer is that you view 2014 as the launching pad for 2015.  Whatever the Lord calling you to and to whatever capacity, I hope that you take a few moments in the last hours of 2014 and reflect on what he’s done in you.  Take a moments to ask him what was missing in 2014, and ask him to fill what was missing and make it marvelous in this big, beautiful New Year.

Wherever you are, whatever you’re doing, know that somewhere in the world I’m raising my glass to you tonight- and I’m SO excited for what this New Year will bring.

 

Cheers!
xo
AnnaFilly