At least when it comes to my yearly Bible reading plan, the “new year” has tended to begin two or three days after Christmas. It’s been awhile since I’ve actually read the January 1st set of readings on January 1st. Part of it is that for whatever reason I like to be “ahead of the plan” . . . maybe to ensure that I don’t get behind and discouraged. Part of it is that it’s simply too long to wait until the New Year before getting back into what’s become a routine of taking a bit of time to chew on the Word. But I think the other reason, and maybe the most driving aspect, is that there’s a sense of anticipation . . .

It’s the anticipation of connecting again with an old friend . . . or sitting down to watch a favorite movie . . . or revisiting a place that has many fond memories associated with it. And, more than that, it’s the anticipation, that while I’m heading down paths that I have trod before . . . reading stuff that’s been read before . . . hearing the old, old story that’s been heard before . . . that, while I’m heading down a well-worn road, I just know there will be new and fresh encounters with the Word of God . . . and with the God of the Word.

As I read Genesis this morning I underlined the “activeness” of God. God created . . . God said . . . God separated . . . God called . . . God made . . . God set . . . God saw . . . God blessed . . . God rested. And I’m wondering how all that “activity” aligns with the slow imperceptible advances you’d imagine through “theistic evolution”. It’s hard for me to imagine God saying every few million years or so, “That’s good . . . and that’s good . . . oh, and that’s really good!” But hey, could be . . . God’s not bound by time the way I am. But as I read again the Creation account I can’t help but think six literal days . . . at the end of which God rests from all the work He has done and all the wonder He has made . . . “and behold, it was very good” (Gen 1:31).

Then I step through the genealogy of Christ in Matthew. And I note again the three women mentioned in the King’s family tree. Tamar (Matt. 1:3), Ruth (1:5), and “the wife of Uriah” (1:6). And from my perspective, you might as well name each of them Grace. One deceived her father-in-law into sleeping with her so that she might conceive . . . the ends justifying the means in her mind (Gen. 38). One, a foreigner to the promises of God, chose to hang with a bitter old woman and take her God as her own (Ruth 1). And one, seduced a king and was used to turn him into not only an adulterer but a murderer, as well. And the grace in this genealogy goes so beyond these women . . . check out some of the kings in this lineage . . . whoo boy! . . . not exactly a stellar pedigree. But through this line, He who was conceived apart from natural human reproduction, bore the right to the throne of the Most High . . . and the right to sit upon it as King and Sovereign.

Then you read Acts . . . Jesus taken into heaven as the disciples jaws fall to the ground . . . and an angel saying to them, “Why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw Him go into heaven.” (Acts 1:11) The King is coming! Amen? Until then His disciples receive the power of heaven manifest in the presence of God through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. The same Spirit present at creation . . . the One working through the ages in lineage of the King . . . the One now indwelling God’s earthly tabernacle . . . aka us . . . His people . . . the church. Three cheers for the church!

And then, as I do every year, I place the reading in the Psalms last as I work through this part of the reading plan. And my “new year” begins with the age old promise that there is a blessing for those whose “delight is in the law of the LORD” . . . for those who meditate on His law day and night (Ps. 1:2). That there is an expectation that for those who present “good soil” to the seed . . . for those that seek to put aside a bit of time to feed on His word, that they will be “like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers” (1:3). Deep roots . . . fruit borne in its season . . . a leaf which endures . . . such is prospering in God’s economy. That’s the blessing which awaits me at the end of what will be, Lord willing, another year’s much anticipated journey down the path of God’s Word.

Cant’ wait . . . let’s get at ‘er . . . for my blessing . . . for His glory . . . amen.