THE FIRST NEW YEAR’S DAY

 

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.  The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.  Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light.  And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness.  God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night.  So the evening and the morning were the first day.  (Genesis 1:1-5)

The best place to begin is the beginning!  Here we are in a brand new year, and launching into a year of reading our Bible through.  Our point of departure is the first chapter of the first book of the Bible.  On this New Year’s Day, we consider the first New Year’s Day—and it starts out with a bang!

In the first sentence, we are introduced to the Author and Subject of this Holy Book.  There is no attempt to prove His existence—logic would dictate that everything made was made by someone—and this Someone is God.  When the beginning began, He was already there—eternal and uncreated.  There is no hint of a spontaneous explosion, where nothing became something, and through eons of time, random events and mutations brought this vast complexity of the universe and all it contains into being.  Rather, we have the determinative act of an Almighty and Sovereign Designer, fashioning all things.  He does as He pleases and directs as He purposes.  Nothing inspired Him but His own will and nothing can thwart that will—and every bit of it for His glory.

From the formless mass, chaos becomes cosmos—the Spirit of God brooding over the primeval oceans as a mother hen hatching her chicks.  Suddenly, by the sheer power of His spoken Word, light erupts from the darkness.  Happy New Year!  Happy new everything!  God said it was good—and so it was.

There would come a day of cosmic sorrow, however.  From bright beginnings, sin’s curse would degrade this good creation—life yielding to death—Satan the usurper claiming dominion relinquished by man’s disobedience.  Remember this, however:

This is my Father’s world. O let me ne’er forget
That though the wrong seems oft so strong, God is the ruler yet.
This is my Father’s world: the battle is not done:
Jesus Who died shall be satisfied,
And earth and Heav’n be one.  (Maltbie D. Babcock)

Some golden daybreak, there will be the dawn of paradise regained, “Then He who sat on the throne said, ‘Behold, I make all things new.’”  (Rev.21:5a)  Happy Eternal Day!