June Cross and Flame letter

“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” And so begins our story. This is the narrative that defines who we are, and more importantly, whose we are. Spring is here in full force and with it comes the awesome remembrance of God's continual creation, and “God said, 'it is good.'” And yet we look around and it doesn't seem so good. We seem to be in a state of perpetual war, with the Pentagon hinting that there will not be an end in our lifetime. We see serious threats to our environment, both short-term and long. Evidence of a declining moral base abound with an increasing number of people either saying morality is irrelevant on one side, or using it as a tool of hate and exclusion on the other. And God can say that 'this is good'? For reasons that only God knows, we were given the gift (curse?) of free will. And from the first opportunity in Eden to today, we have used it and abused it, and each step of the way, we make things worse for ourselves.

God also said, “Let there be light”. And God divided the darkness from the light. And here is where our hope is. With our free will, God also gave us reason. We are awakening to the consequences of our sins. We see both the darkness and the light. The deeper we plunge into the darkness, into great need, strong temptation and emotional pain, the more precious that light appears. We begin to realize that God has a better way and come to the point where we depend upon God's wisdom and not our own. We freely choose to put our lives, our communities, and all of creation in God's hands. We begin to see that nature is good, not something to be conquered. We begin to see that our neighbor (whom we have called 'enemy' for so long) is made in God's image. To kill her is nothing less than committing deicide. We begin to recognize that there is truth and that it is based in love. The true Light, which was present before creation, came in human form about 2000 years ago and showed us a way, showed us the truth, showed us life, and life abundantly. And it indeed is good.

As we work through Genesis this Summer, let us embrace it as an opportunity to reclaim our identity as children of light!!!