Friday, November 30, 2007

Today's text

Colossians 1:15-20

He [Christ] is the image of the unseen God, the first-born of all creation, for in him were created all things in heaven and on earth: everything visible and everything invisible, thrones, ruling forces, sovereignties, powers-all things were created through him and for him. He exists before all things and in him all things hold together, and he is the Head of the Body, that is, the Church. He is the Beginning, the first-born from the dead, so that he should be supreme in every way; because God wanted all fullness to be found in him and through him to reconcile all things to him, everything in heaven and everything on earth, by making peace through his death on the cross.

Prayer

You are … you are … you are … the beginning. First born from death, you are the beginning of all we want, all for which we hope. You are the daybreak of eternity, the first light of our final tomorrow, the rose-glow sunrise of newest day that never grows old, unlike this heart of mine.

You are. You are the beginning of the end of death’s finality.

You are the beginning of your church, a people made new, born from the cold death that is this separation from your ever-abiding love.

You are the beginning of the new being, risen afresh from the leaden weights that drag us to earth so that we do not soar on wings of your risen life that lift us above the daily drudgeries of mere existence.

You are the beginning of bitter tears’ hope, the rising of the multitude who will follow you from death into life unimagined.

You are the beginning of all that will be when there will be nothing but you, for you will be all in all.

Be all in all in me this day, risen Christ, for I languish in listless melancholy. I hunger to taste the beginning of the end for which you made me and all. I want to live beyond the death that so often grips the soul.

Let me, this day, see you, lest my heart grow old. May the first light of your tomorrow shine in these, my eyes.

Pr. David L. Miller