Word for the day by Christian Education Forum
Come Holy Spirit Renew the Creation
Genesis. 1:1-5
Asha Paulose,
St John’s MTC, Queens, NY
2“Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.” 3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.
When we reflect on the sacrament of Baptism, do you immediately think about the creation story? If you are like me, you probably breezed through the first two verses of Genesis so you can continue on to the much more exciting parts of creation like when God creates animals or human beings. However, the first two verses of our Holy Bible are unassumingly powerful. God chose to initially create the Earth to be a blank slate only to slowly transform it with the help of the Holy Spirit.
One can only hope this is the experience we all receive during Baptism. Our spiritual existence was formless and empty and the Sprit of God hovered in that Baptismal water to make us spiritually fit for the road ahead. The transformation we first received in Baptism doesn't end there. It is something we must strive to experience over and over again.
In Acts, Peter explained to Jesus’ followers that they too could receive this Spirit: “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”(Acts 2:38-39).At this historic moment, Peter made God’s Spirit available to all who truly repented even to those who were previously baptized. The Feast of Pentecost, which is celebrated this year on June 4, is our annual reminder that God doesn’t leave us in the state of chaos that we might be in. We may feel completely hopeless and empty like the Earth in verse 2 but if we continue reading Genesis, we know that when God speaks, even the chaos obeys.
The Spirit is hovering over us drawing us to stability. Once we render a willingness to transform, God will happily utter the command He has been waiting to say: “Let there be Light”. Will we allow the Spirit to organize the chaos that might be filling our world so that we can be Lighted too?
PRAYER
Dear Lord, We praise and exalt You for all the blessings You have showered upon us. We know at times the darkness draws us in and we let instability take over our lives. Help us to not be complacent with the hopelessness we may feel. Holy Spirit, we know that You are hovering over us. Give us the strength to draw closer to You so that God’s Light can transform us into what we were called to do. In Christ always, Amen.
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY:
So he said to me, “This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: ‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the Lord Almighty. Zechariah 4:6