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Previous Challenge Entry (Level 1 – Beginner)
Topic: Start (01/16/06)
Everything started a long time ago, in a very different place, in a very different way than I imagined. All I knew had surrounded me from the moment of my birth. The warmth, the security, the belonging, the coffee mug next to my computer. Well, the cup came a bit later. Anyway, that was my idea of the beginning. Little did I know that there was more, lots more.

Let me tell you how I heard that everything had started. There used to be a time when there was no time. No time. How does that work? Everything is now or then for me, but before things started that was not the case. No now or then existed. In fact, nothing existed. What is nothing? Try to imagine nothing. Just that act is something. Another concept that eludes me. There are plenty of others, but we’ll stick with this one. Anyway that’s the start point. Even that refers to time and place. Are there no words to express this idea adequately?

God, who invented time and is beyond the notion of nothing, decided to start something new. So, He took a look around and created. That’s where the Genesis account that I’d read started. Think about that for a minute. Before Genesis 1:1, God is. Talk about a prequel! On a more serious note, what had God just done by involving Himself in a time and material existence? Is that commitment or what? The Incarnation was already in motion.

He started another new idea, too. Life inside the arena He had created. He started with the plants, then the animals and finally mankind. The life of mankind was different than the rest, though, in a way that only He knows fully. He breathed His own life into a specially crafted chunk of the earth, a handful of dust. That’s how it all started. Everything from nothing, but not for nothing. Pardon the grammar. I’m here because God wants me to be. Everyone and everything else is too. Did that revelation change the way I look at things? Oh, yes! Change had started in me and my attitudes. Creation continued.

1 O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory above the heavens.
2 From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise because of your enemies, to silence the foe and the avenger.
3 When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,
4 what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?
5 You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor.
6 You made him ruler over the works of your hands; you put everything under his feet:
7 all flocks and herds, and the beasts of the field,
8 the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, all that swim the paths of the seas.
9 O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!
Psalms 8:1-9 (NIV)
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Member Comments
Member
Date
Jan Ackerson
01/24/06
This is almost like stream-of-consciousness, written in a "real", authentic voice. However, it jumps around a bit. The paragraph before the Scripture is the most powerful--good job!