If you come over to my house and check out my closet, you’ll find two or three brand new shirts I haven’t worn yet. I got them for Christmas. I’m not even sure Ivetaken the tags of them yet. New shirts, sweaters, a new pocket knife. I got a lot of new stuff this year. But my new shirts aren’t what you’d call ‘orginals.’ They’remore like, ‘off-the-rack’ shirts. I don’t personally identify with original creations when it comes to my wardrobe.

Of course, our God is A God of Infinite Creativity. No two strands of DNA are identical. Every fingerprint on every hand that has ever been is totally unique. No two of the trillions of stars in our universe (or any other universe, for that matter,) is replicated. No two leaves on any two trees in this world are the same. No grain of sand on any shore is identical to any other grain of sand on any other shore. Every grain of sand is you might say, ‘original.’

When he wrote his first and only book, he was not at a loss for words, either. He could easily have said, “Once upon a time,” since that’s how a lot of other famous writers started their books. Except that there was no ‘time’ to be “once upon” when God began His story. He hadn’t spoken time into existence yet. And so, he chose to begin …“In the beginning:” In the beginning, —when God created the heavens and the earth— He said the earth was formless and empty of anything at all. There, in the midst of that dark and formless place, God ‘did’ something about the darkness. He said, ‘Let there be light,’ and because He said it, just like that, there was ‘light.’ I don’t know exactly how light showed up. It just came into being because God said, “Let there be … and there was.” He didn’t have to say it twice. When God said it, he meant it. The God of Infinite Creativity is not use to repeating Himself. When He said, “Let there be light, there was light. He didn’t have to say it twice. But that’s not to say He would never say, “In the beginning …” again. Later in His book, in John’s gospel, God repeated himself. He said, “In the beginning” again.

He didn’t need to say “Let there be light,” again, like he did the first time. No. Instead, He spoke into existence another ‘beginning, — a ‘new’ beginning. “In the beginning was the WORD,” he said in the book … and the WORD became Flesh and dwelt among us. And in that Flesh was life. And that Life was the Light of Men.” God did more than just say, “Let there be light.” God’s Son BECAME the very Light for men to find their way through life’s darkness … back to God of All Creation. Just as surely as God spoke light into existence in that ‘first’ beginning in His book … His love became the Light of Men in the person and work of Jesus. As you focus on this new year, may the brightness of Jesus — the very Light of the World — bring warmth and encouragement to your life and heart.