Fresh Starts

I never make New Year's resolutions. In fact, I enjoy mocking those who do. Joining the gym in January? You'll be regretting you spent the money by February.

But reading Genesis is making me re-think my heretofore disdain for those seeking fresh starts. God seems to love fresh starts, they're everywhere in Genesis: Genesis 5 re-starts Adam and Eve's story after the Cain and Abel disaster, Genesis 8 is a re-start after Noah. Later on (I've cheated and read ahead) there's re-starts at Babel, with Abraham, with Joseph and his brothers, with the Exodus and Red Sea account, with the Judges, with the kings, and on and on.

Then, of course, there's the whole Jesus thing. The gospel writer John intentionally picks up on Genesis 1 when he writes "In the Beginning was the Word..."

But new starts continue even after Jesus: the start of the church, the first Gentile Christians, etc. etc. New starts occur all the way through to Revelation with a new heaven and a new earth, and God's very own triumphant words: "I am making all things new!"

So there's one giant arc of redemption and rescue happening from Genesis to Revelation, but there's lots of little redemptive threads sewn into the fabric of history, looping around specific people, specific events, specific works of God. Most of these are new beginnings initiated by God himself.

Perhaps that's reason enough to join a gym this January.

[Editor's Note: We'll be at Ocean Isle next week working on my base-sunburn for the summer with the family. I will have limited access to the internet in order to actually vacate and not just do work at a more scenic location. I'll try to check in once or twice and maybe get Macon to chime in, too, but we'll be back in full force after next week.]