Want Advent emails delivered straight to your inbox? Sign up here!
Readings: Genesis 1:1-5; John 1:1-5
My memory isn’t great. I’ve forgotten many things, and often I rely on a combination of journaling, photographs, and someone else’s retelling to remind me of past events.
Even though I don’t remember specifics, I know there was a time I realized my parents were people. And not just people, but people who had a life before I existed.
Every kid has that moment; some remember it exactly, and some don’t. But growing up, everyone has a point where they realize the world existed before they did.
As a child, my limited knowledge and experience made it hard to imagine the world existing without me.
My first clue was recognizing things “then” aren’t the same as things “now.” Watching a black and white tv, I wonder if there was a time where the world was without color. Reading books or watching tv shows set in the past left me wondering if the years would circle back. I wanted to see the year I was born.
I had a hard time imagining the world as anything other than what it was. It was a lightbulb moment when I realized everyone experiences the world differently than myself.
Growing up, it’s hard to imagine your parents as full people, with lives separate from your own and experiences that don’t include even a thought of you. As a child, your parents have just always been.
So too, it can be hard to imagine God existing before anything else.
Scripture serves as a record of the past, much like my journals and photographs are for me. The written word of God reminds us of God’s character and shows us how he operates.
The first verses in John remind us of the eternal nature of God. These verses tell us that God, Jesus, and the Spirit existed together in the beginning. The Word was both God and with God (v. 1).
Unlike my parents, God is not a created being. He has always been. In Genesis 1, we read as he surveys the formless, dark mass of earth. With just a word, God separates the light and the darkness. Before there was even evening or morning, there was God.
Recognizing the eternal nature of God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit, should give us pause. It’s hard to imagine. Our knowledge and experience of the world limit our ability to understand such a thing logically.
That’s where faith comes in.
Faith opens our eyes and allows us to accept the everlasting nature of God. Without faith, we get stuck in the back and forth, hemmed in by our limited understanding.
There’s nothing God does not know about; there’s nothing he hasn’t seen. It was only through him that all things came into being. In trying times, we take comfort knowing he sees us and cares for us. He’s unchanging and ever-present.
Journal Prompt: It takes faith to accept the idea that God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit have always existed. Where else are you called to step out in faith this season?
