BLESSED NEW YEAR + GENESIS 1

Hey guys! Blessed new year! Wow. Time flies, right? It's amazing how God worked in my life (and I'm sure in yours as well) last year, and I'm excited to know Him better and experience Him more this coming year. I'm praying for focus, diligence and earnestness in my walk with Him. What about you?

Also, I'm going to read the entire Bible in 365 days! I'll definitely try to post my reflections on here as well. (I won't swamp you guys. I'm doing three or four chapters everyday, which is possibly much more content than it seems right now. Plus school commitments and such, posting thrice a day might not be feasible on my side.) To kick it off, I'll do a really quick (I hope) reflection on what I read this morning: Genesis chapter one! (I think it's really cool to be starting the year with Genesis. I really do. I mean, it's a given, considering I'm doing this in chronological order, but still. Wow. Starting a new year reading about the start of the first year in all of history is pretty great.)

"God saw that the light was good, and He separated the light from the darkness" - verse 4

I think this is pretty cool. I can't imagine a situation where light is mixed with darkness. And then if it was, I can't imagine how one would go about separating it. 

Have you guys ever tried separating egg yolks and egg whites? Okay. If you have, then you know what I’m talking about when I say it’s pretty much impossible to do so if you break the egg yolk. But that’s exactly what God did! He separated them! Ahh!

If this demonstration of sovereignty isn’t impactful enough, it’s also so metaphorical to how God separates right from wrong, even in the murkiest situations. So if right now you’re starting the year feeling like you’re lower than low and can’t be saved, guess what? You can.

God is also the best and the only yardstick to determine what’s right because He invented the entire system of right and wrong. So let’s check our standards against God’s.

And, this is sort of digressing, but it’s pretty great that the creation of the earth is so similar to the creation and salvation of us. Just like the earth, we all used to be formless, empty and dark. We had literally zero potential. We were nothing. But God came along anyway, and He took us and made us into something that has the potential to prosper, produce, enlighten and bless. He didn’t even make all of this from scratch – He made it from nothing. When I was slightly younger (because I’m not that old), I had this devotional material that challenged us to think of a brand-new colour. It still bugs me because I still can’t. God didn’t just come up with colours; He came up with body parts, animals, geographical features, shapes. Pretty incredible stuff.

Anyway. Back to the earth analogy. The earth didn’t say “nah, God, I don’t think I can” or “I don’t really want to”. And it’s still the only planet that has life as vibrant as this. God’s blessings are long-term, far-reaching and have a huge impact on everybody around us. Pretty cool.

“God made two great lights--the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars.” – verse 16 

God clearly made two lights. One was “greater”, one was “lesser”. I’m guessing that we’ve all had moments where we thought we were lesser in comparison to other people, even in comparison to our own expectations. I’ve certainly had thoughts like “I’m not talented enough” or “I’m not experienced enough”.

But wait!

God did create “greater” and “lesser”, yes. (So it’s probably true that you’re not the world’s best drummer, plausibly correct that you’re not the most qualified leader ever) But you know what He gave the “lesser light”? Stars!

Just like how God surrounded the dimmer light with stars, God will never let us do our job alone. God will flood us with people and blessings who will govern and guide us, even if we can’t see them. (In Singapore, we can’t see many stars, but that doesn’t mean the moon is alone up there! And in other places, the stars outshine the moon, but the moon’s still there! And during eclipses? Moon’s still there.)

“Then God said, "I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds in the sky and all the creatures that move along the ground--everything that has the breath of life in it--I give every green plant for food." And it was so.” – verses 29 and 30

Something I didn’t realise when I read the verse the first or second time was that last part: “and it was so”. Whatever God says, goes. So if God gives you a responsibility, you’ve got that responsibility. You’ve also got His blessings and protection as you go about doing it. So, yay! Motivation.

The best part about this verse, I think, is that we see that God blessed man with everything He had made and done. He didn’t withhold blessings, He was not selfish, He gave 100% to us even though we hadn’t done squat. (We hadn’t even fulfilled the request in verse 28 to be fruitful and multiply.)

Recently, I saw a Darth Vader comic and I bought it because I really like Darth Vader and Star Wars and all that. I didn’t unwrap it or touch it on my way home because I wanted to relish the moment I’d open it and read it for the first time. I was really excited. I’ve never been this excited about a comic before. And this comic was a hard-cover, beautifully-drawn comic. I was so proud of it.

I got home, put down my bag, said hi to my sister… And when I turned around, my brother was sprawled out on the couch… Reading my new comic. He had unwrapped it for me. He had cracked the spine. He had read the first few pages before I even got to see them. Also, he was squishing my comic book.

(Don’t worry, Squiggly. I’m over it and sorry I didn’t react better to it.)

God didn’t just stumble upon us reading His brand-new comic. No. He gave us the comic. And then He bought us every single comic in that canon. And then He let us unwrap each and every one of them, crack their brand-new spines, and experience the stories first-hand.

Reading this verse made me feel sort of guilty for getting upset about the comic book. It made me re-evaluate: how can I give 100% to God, family and friends? How can I put others’ needs first, even when they don’t “deserve” it, or don’t know they need it, or when it doesn’t seem important? And how do I scrunch up my ego and toss it out of the way? (I mean, come on. God has everything, is everything and knows everything. If anybody deserves a superiority complex, it’s God. But He isn’t selfish or proud. He lets us cut down His beautiful trees and put footprints on His soil. Wow.)

“God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning--the sixth day.” – verse 31

This one, I guess, is pretty self-explanatory. How can we carry the “very good” torch? How do we go beyond being good?

It’s like how when you get a new pair of white shoes, you do everything in your power to keep them white. It’s difficult (and sometimes seems incredibly stupid, because shoes’ entire purpose is to protect your feet from mud and wear and tear, correct?) but you do it anyway.

How do we keep ourselves in mint condition? How do we stay as the really cool shoes we were meant to be, instead of scruffy canvas… things?

The answer, again and again, is God. I mean, after a month of owning white shoes, you realise you actually own grey shoes. And so you have to wash them, right? Same thing. There is no way we can stay pristine by our own power. We have to keep coming back to God, so He can restore us to the spirit and attitude we need to have. Otherwise, we become so ratty that eventually, we are torn, we have stains, we can’t serve our purpose, and we become useless.

The other answer (which works in tandem with the first) is to realise you cannot walk this walk of faith alone. Like the moon, you have to be surrounded by stars to effectively illuminate the earth.

In verses 11, 12, 21, 24 and 25, we can see that God made everything “according to their kinds”. But not man. We’re individuals, yes, but we’re also impossibly the same. We are all one kind, unified by our image in Christ alone (verses 26 and 27) in a way no plant, fish, bird or mammal can ever or will ever be. The first blessing God gave us was unity. So let’s fight to uphold that sort of Godly peace and cooperation wherever we go!

Anyway. That’s all from me for this morning. I realise this was not short at all (in my Word document, this is four whole pages. Oops). Sorry guys! But also, thank you for reading through all that! God bless you guys, have an absolutely stellar year ahead.

(And again, if you’re in need of prayer requests, drop me an email!)

Love,

Gabbi