June 21

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In the beginning was the Word… No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him. John 1:1, 18

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🔊 With the words “In the beginning”, John here takes us to the earliest point in time that can be conceived.  Genesis 1:1 opens with similar words, reaching back to the creation.  1 John 1:1 reaches back only to the incarnation.  But here in John 1:1 the ‘beginning’ is the condition that exists in God beyond time.  The beginning, then, is not merely in time, but in position.  It is the fountain-head of God and of all that is.  To imagine this, we have to imagine a place before all things were.  In the beginning there were no cars, no houses, no trees, no stars.  Above all, there was no sin, no devil, only God.  In the beginning was Christ, alongside and in relationship with His Father.  There is in that relationship a profound stillness of being.  The seraphim around God’s throne were created for this place, and have covered their faces since the day of their creation at the wonder of it.  Think of one of them visiting our gatherings – they might rightly wonder if they are servants of the same God!  Yet these same creatures, attendant on the man Jesus Christ, would have sensed the unspoilt wonder of eternal life and rest in Him.  Christ is in one sense the place itself.  He is the Light that shines – John 1:4-5, 8:12 – and the Life that sustains – Colossians 1:17.  Whatever else may ever be said about prayer and our relationship with God, it is foundational that our hearts enter into quiet waiting on Him, or we will never truly understand who He is.