In The Beginning

Appropriate words for January 1st. It is the beginning of a new year. A fresh start. A time when people make resolutions that are often short-lived. This year as I begin the year I am struck by the number of new beginnings in the Bible. It seemed that we are not the first people to make a verbal commitment that we could not sustain. Today I was looking at Genesis 1-2 and Luke 1 specifically. There are many remarkable things in these passages from scripture, however, one stood out to me today, the presence of the Holy Spirit. Genesis uses the term the Spirit of God, and God is captured in the term "we". While in Luke the term Holy Spirit is used. No matter the term used in your translation, or even the Greek and Hebrew, the fact remains that the Holy Spirit is the driving force behind new beginnings. We may try with all our human might to change and start again, and if we leave it at a human effort we will fall short. Additionally it is not simply a matter of asking God to bless what we are trying to do. It is not about trying to infuse the Holy Spirit into our actions. Rather we should be starting new by following what God is calling us to, by walking the journey path the Holy Spirit is leading us down. In Genesis the world we now live in was created, all be it a little more perfect, and in Luke the door to our redemption was flung open, not by the work of humans, but by the Spirit of God.