E
ach beginning is unique, yet all beginnings share in the past, offering unfolding newness. Life is full of beginnings: taking the first steps; uttering the first words; anticipating the first school days; a first boyfriend or girlfriend; a first graduation; marriage; the birth of a child; relocation; a new job; a new church. Our lives are like a pendulum, moving back and forth between endings and beginnings, for one cannot exist without the other.
TWO CONNECTED BEGINNINGS
What We Believe
The Father
God’s Presence A beginning without end
22
May 2021 AdventistWorld.org
The Bible mentions many beginnings. But within the biblical array of newness, two beginnings connect in a special way as they mark a vital feature of our existence, namely God’s presence. Consider the inauguration of the Sabbath, as described in Genesis 1:31-2:3, and the beginning of the sanctuary service, as depicted in Exodus 39:32-42 and 40:9. Both of these beginnings follow the completion of a work of creation. This is evident in the use of similar terminology, indicating in both episodes (1) an evaluation of the creative work, (2) a declaration of completion, and (3) a blessing and hallowing. A closer look makes it even clearer: “Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good. So the evening and the morning were the sixth day. Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished. And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made” (Gen. 1:31-2:3).
Photo: Isaac Sloman
