In the beginning...........again

These are the opening words of a story of life and love and failing and falling and brokenness and death and then life and life again.


These are the opening words of the first story of creation to be found in the book of Genesis and they point us to a God who has a beginning point when it comes to a relationship with this particular earth.  This God who could have passed it all by, gone on to do other things, but instead,

in the beginning

God began creating.  It was an act out of the Divine Energy that gave us a safe and nourishing place in which to live and procreate and dance and sing.  Humans were made in the image of this Divine One - and even if we have absolutely no idea what it means to be 'made in the image' of the Divine One, so it is.

At the end, when God had created water and light and trout and giraffes and fire ants and whales and bluebirds and brussel sprouts and sequoias and YOU and ME and EVERY LIVING HUMAN being, God looked at it all and called it very good.  Very good.  Very good.

In looking at where it all started, we can see how far we have fallen.  We have fallen into a place where we disrespect the earth, destroy its ability to nourish animal and human alike.  We have fallen into a place where species have gone extinct and whole tracks of land and ocean have been defiled.  We have fallen into a place where those humans who were created in God's image have decided to count some more 'godlike' and some 'less'.  Some of God's beloved creatures are given privileged status; some are targeted by the system and its powers.  

It is no longer very good.  Many days it isn't really good.

We can wait - watching the sky for Jesus to return and fix this mess, and someday Jesus will do just that.  But until then, we are to act just as Jesus taught:  free the oppressed, feed the hungry, love your neighbor.  All your neighbors.  Especially the ones targeted by the system.

God has no categores, neither racial categories nor income categores nor religious categories.  God only has those who were created in the Divine Image and for whom Jesus died.  In the face of every human being is the reflection of the Divine Creator.

If you can look at another human being and discount them as children of God, it's time to have a long talk with the one who loved you from the beginning and forgives you even now.