The Hebrew evening/morning sequence conditions us to the rhythms of grace. We go to sleep, and God begins his work. As we sleep he develops his covenant. We wake and are called out to participate in God's creative action. We respond in faith, in work. But always grace is previous. Grace is primary. We wake into a world we didn't make, into a salvation we didn't earn. Evening: God begins, without our help, his creative day. Morning: God calls us to enjoy and share and develop the work he initiated. Creation and covenant are sheer grace and there to greet us every morning. George MacDonald once wrote that sleep is God's contrivance for giving us the help he cannot get into us when we are awake.
We read and reread these opening pages of Genesis, along with certain sequences of Psalms, and recover these deep, elemental rhythms, internalizing the reality in which the strong, initial pulse is God's creating/saving word, God's providential/sustaining presence, God's grace.
As this biblical genesis rhythm works in me, I also discover something else: when I quit my day's work, nothing essential stops. I prepare for sleep not with a feeling of exhausted frustration because there is so much yet undone and unfinished, but with expectancy. The day is about to begin! God's genesis words are about to be spoken again...
What a way to see the world. Viewing the day with expectancy. Eager anticipation for what God has done and is about to say.
ReplyDeleteHearing even among all those moments of frustration the anchor of Christs encouraging and powerful words.
"These are the words of him who is holy and true, who holds the key of David. What he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open. I know your deeds. See,I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut.I know that you have little strength, yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name."
Recently this scripture from Rev.3.7-8 has been a huge faith builder. Knowing the strength and love of Jesus, his power and promises go with us every waking and sleeping moment of the day.
Amen, Mike! So blessed you are taking this journey!
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