Beginnings

It is a new year, a new beginning, a new time to create goals and make resolutions. But this beginning is not THE beginning, for we lived in the years before and our mistakes and problems and blessings and relationships are carried through to this new year.

Genesis tells of the beginning of the earth, and the beginning of humans on the earth, but it is not THE beginning. It is not even OUR beginning, for God tells Jeremiah in Jeremiah 1:5 “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”

Before God made us in our mother’s womb, He made us. He knew us. We had already begun.

There are arguments on this earth about when life begins. For some it’s at conception. Others believe it’s when a baby is viable and able to live outside of the mother’s womb. For others it’s at birth. And still other cultures have not given a baby a name until they’re past the infant stage when their mortality is in the most danger.

But the bible says that we existed before we were born and that we had a calling. We were set apart for something. Few will be like Jeremiah, called to be a prophet. But we were all set apart to be something, something perhaps small in our eyes, but great to God, since all are great in God’s eyes, and every job is important. Every cog in a clock matters, every piece in an engine has a job. All are the sons and daughters of God. All. Not just the ones who serve God. Not just the ones who accept Jesus. All are His children because He made us. The onus is on us to accept and embrace our heritage since God will not force us.

Before the earth began there was a war in heaven, where the Angel of Light rose up against God, jealous for power, and was cast out of heaven along with all his followers, losing his light and become the Devil of Darkness. Were we there then? Did we see it? Partake in the war? Experience sorrow to see what Lucifer had chosen to become?

The bible doesn’t say if we were. The bible isn’t very clear of our role before we were born. For some believers we are separate from the angels, a different being that God created. For others we are the angels, serving God, filling our roles until it’s time for us to come to earth and learn what we can only learn here.

We speak about it when we say about the recently dead, “God called him home.” Home is a place we’ve been and we sometimes long for. For some of us, we ache for this place that we have no memory of, yet know that somewhere in our past it exists.

I know I’ve had the experience of hearing something for the first time and yet knowing that I know it. I call it a heart memory. Something my mind has forgotten but my heart knows. We’ve all instantly connected to a new person as if we had known them all our lives. Our hearts and souls tell us so, even when we don’t recognize what that is.

For some they explain it away as reincarnation, a never ending cycle of being born and dying and being born again and living life over and over. But I think it’s much simpler than that. Instead of a circle, it’s a line. We are born in spirit, then sent on the journey to earth, and then we return to await the resurrection, united with our earthly body.

We’re not sure of all this. The veil has covered our hearts and minds for a reason, heavy enough so that we can’t see clearly, but light enough to know that there are shadows there, that something is there that we can’t quite understand.

And so we come to earth, on a new beginning, and throughout our lives are new beginnings, new adventures, new trials. We change schools and homes and jobs. We marry, and lose our spouse through divorce or death. We have children and say goodbye when they grow up and move away.

Each year is a new beginning, to look back and see what happened, what we had done in the past year, and to look forward to vow to do better, to change something, to begin something new.

May your new beginning bring you the joy that you are seeking, the resolutions you are needing, and the peace your heart desires. And always remember, especially when you are at the bottom of your abilities and your soul is tire and feeling worthless, that you are a child of God, that He loves you, and all you have to do, is accept Him.