Everyone wants to make a “New Year, New You.” But before we make our beginnings to this next year, let’s think about the beginning God has already made.
If you wind back the clock into the depths of forever—before there were people, before there were planets, before there were protons—what do you think was there?
Answers are typically in one of four categories:
- nothing
- chaos
- power
- love
1) NOTHING. It’s probably the most common belief that in the beginning there was just this big, dark, empty expanse of space (which, of course, is not nothing, but we’ll leave that aside) and then, BANG, everything came out of nothing. Now, as miracles go, that’s a pretty astonishing miracle. Christians believe in the virgin birth of Jesus, but this would be the virgin birth of the universe without even the virgin. It’s the ultimate conjuring trick—just pure magic out of nowhere.
If this were true, what would that mean for you in this upcoming year, 2022? It would mean that life is ultimately nothing, and you have to make something out of nothing for yourself. You’ll need to be a self-creator and a self-made person. But in the end it’s only nothing.
2) CHAOS. In the history of the human race, this belief is far more common than #1 above. Ancient religions and myths tell stories of the gods fighting and maybe the loser gets cast out and the earth is just the body of this dead monster. Or there’s been a cosmic storm that’s blown through heaven and the earth is just the debris. Or there was a land of ice and a land of fire and they collided and life sprang out of that energy.
If this were true, it would mean that 2022 is a year all about struggle and fighting and survival. You could try to organize your closets, but in the end entropy is just going to pull you back down into a mess of chaos. You could try to get control of your relationships, but the best you can hope for is some decent leftovers from your fights.
3) POWER. There’s a non-religious version of this view that thinks in the beginning were just the iron laws of physics and today we just dance to their tune (although this doesn’t explain the origin of matter). The religious version of this view says that in the beginning there was a power. Let’s just call that power “God.” But this god is a distant individual high on power and low on personality. He was just twiddling his celestial thumbs with only his own thoughts for company.
If this were true, then 2022 is a year all about submission to the power of God or physics. It’s ultimately slavery to immovable forces and there isn’t any hope to fundamentally change anything. All we can do is put a better veneer over a cold and lifeless world.
4) LOVE. Unlike these others ideas, the Bible says that in the beginning was love. Genesis 1:1 says God was there in the beginning. Genesis 1:2 says the Spirit was there in the beginning. Genesis 1:3 says the Word was there in the beginning, which John 1:1 and John 1:14 clarify is Jesus. In the beginning was a Father loving his Son in the joy of the Spirit. This is true.
That is the good news at the heart of reality—that we have come from love, are defined by love, are shaped by love, and are destined for love. Therefore this new year has the remarkable possibility of not being about fate or fighting or force, but about a Father calling you into fellowship with his Son. And it’s his resolution to draw you into his own love and use you to draw others into this new family as well.
The Lord be with you this new year.