Beginning the New Year with the Beginning

We have just begun a New Year. Our hearts are filled with joy, happiness and gladness.  Our hearts are filled with gratitude to God for the grace and opportunity He has given us to experience a new year. What is intriguing about the New Year is the idea of the new beginning.   At the beginning of a New Year our hearts are filled with excitement and expectations for the new experiences the New Year brings.

What does the Bible say about the beginning? In the first book of the Bible, God is the Creator who has no beginning. God who has no beginning created the beginning of all things. God created the beginning of time, space, humanity and history.  God created the beginning of the New Year. In the beginning, God created heaven and earth (Gen 1:1).

In the last book of the Bible, God who has no beginning becomes the Beginning.  I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End (Rev 22:13). God is not just the Creator of the beginning but God is the Beginning.  God is the First. God is prior. God is absolutely preeminent. We are not just celebrating the beginning of the year but we are celebrating God as the Beginning of the year- the Beginning of all things.

God instructed Moses to celebrate the beginning the year by erecting the tabernacle in the tent of the meeting. The Lord spoke to Moses: On the first day of the first month you shall set up the tabernacle in the tent of the meeting. (Ex 40: 1-2).  This instruction of the Lord to Moses has a profound spiritual meaning. The tabernacle represents the majestic Presence of God. The tent often refers to the human person or human body (1 Cor 5:1).

The way Moses established the tabernacle in the tent of the meeting is the way a Christian should establish a space for God in his heart.  The way the tabernacle dwells in the tent, that is the way the Lord desires to dwell in our hearts. Therefore, in the first day of the first month of the year, God invites us to set up a place for him in our hearts, a place for his Word in our minds and a place for his Will in our plans. Our tent cannot remain void of God’s abiding presence.

Begin the New Year with the Beginning who has no beginning but has become the Beginning of all things. Plato says "the beginning is the most important part of the  work." The beginning is the most important part of the year. If we begin with the Beginning then the year will unfold according to the will of God for us. Beginning with the Beginning is the first and most crucial decision we have to make in the beginning of the  New Year.