On the first day of Advent, we remember God with us. It is where God’s story begins, and it is where it continues and ends.
On the first day of Advent, we remember God with us. It is where God’s story begins, and it is where it continues and ends.
Advent Day 1, God with Us.
God with us, what a promise, what an idea.
And on the first day of Advent, this is where we begin.
God with us.
This is where the story of Scripture begins too.
God with us.
God puts creation into motion.
He orders and organizes it so that every living thing flourishes.
Water before fish, sky before birds, plants and oxygen before man and woman.
God with us and involved in every detail of creation.
Genesis 1:26-28 says, then God said, "Let us make man in our image, "after our likeness, and let them have dominion "over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens "and over the livestock and over all the earth "and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth."
So God created man in his own image.
In the image of God, he created him.
Male and female, he created them.
And God blessed them.
Genesis 1:26-28.
God thinks, God organizes, God imagines, God creates, and God blesses.
These five actions are part of what it means to be made in God's image.
Take a moment to reflect on this.
In what ways do you reflect the image of God through the way that you think, organize, imagine, create, or bless?
The next verse in Genesis 1 says, "And God said to them, 'Be fruitful and multiply, "and fill the earth and subdue it, "and have dominion over the fish of the sea "and over the birds of the heavens, "and over every living thing that moves on the earth.'"
God could have imprinted man and woman with instructions, but God speaks to them.
Take a minute to answer the question, why do you think God speaks?
Now consider this.
If God's first interaction with man and woman began with speech, then what kind of relationship does God want with you?
God creates and speaks with His creation.
He also provides all that creation needs to live and to breathe and grow.
God sets up a relationship of dependence from the beginning, revealing Himself as the generous God who loves to give good gifts.
What good gifts has God given you?
Take a minute to thank Him for them. (gentle music) If Genesis 1 portrays the cosmic yet careful crafting of creation, Genesis 2 draws us towards the small and intimate.
Listen as God makes the first man and woman from Genesis 2:7-9.
The Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.
And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there He put the man whom He had formed.
And out of the ground, the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food.
God forms the man.
God breathes into the man.
God plants a garden for the man.
And God cracks seeds into trees that are beautiful and life-giving for the man's enjoyment and nourishment.
Which of God's activities capture your attention from that reading?
Why?
And then God makes the woman displaying the same tenderness and care.
Listen to Genesis 2:18-22.
And the Lord God said, "It is not good that the man should be alone.
"I will make him a helper fit for him."
The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field.
But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him.
So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man and while he slept, took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh.
And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man.
God sees what Adam needs and fills it.
But not any helper will do.
Adam needs something, someone, designed specifically for him.
So God makes the woman and brings her to Adam.
As you think back, how has God met you in needs this year?
In what ways were his answers extravagant, expected, surprising, or even disappointing?
Nothing utilitarian marks God's activities, nor efficiency or productivity.
God could have made man and woman any way he wanted.
He spoke stars and spinning suns and salamanders into existence.
Yet, he imagines.
God creates by gathering dust and then a rib.
He breathes and he speaks.
Why?
And what might God's activities mean for us today in this season of Advent?
It means at least this, that in the beginning, it was God with us.
God walks with man and woman in the garden.
God talks with them, teaching them what it means to be created in God's image.
Care for one another, meet each other's needs, tend to the garden in which you live, watch over the fish and birds and the livestock and the creeping things, pay attention to God's instructions, which bring forth goodness.
In the middle, God with us.
Jesus puts on flesh.
He's born as a baby.
He walks with his disciples on roads and in gardens.
He teaches them how to live in right relationship with God and one another.
He tells them to watch and wait to pay attention because something greater than Moses is here.
And at the end, God with us.
God will dwell with his people and his people will dwell with him.
Jesus promises to return and he will.
Jesus is the God who makes and keeps promises.
A day is coming when the clouds will roll back.
We will see Jesus as he truly is and it will be glorious, better than anything we could imagine.
What do you want to remember about Jesus, God with us, during this advent?
God with us is the story we receive at the beginning of all things.
And it is the one that makes sense of our stories.
God with us.
God with us.
We were not meant to be without God.
We were supposed to walk with him for all our days in a garden.
Take a minute to consider.
In what areas of life do you need God's nearness?
He's with usness today.
Take some time to tell God about it.
Let's pray.
Heavenly Father, remind us during Advent this season of waiting that you are God with us.
You were God with man and woman in the garden.
You sent your son to be with us.
Your spirit is with us now, reminding us of what it means to be made in your image.
Amen.