Back to the Beginning

 The link to this week's live-streamed service is here.

The calendar this year didn't allow us any ease before the start of the fall term. With Labour Day falling on Sept. 1, we were back to school, back to work and back to routine immediately as August disappeared.

So, what did you do on your summer vacation? 

• I learned a new way to discourage deer from eating my garden. 
• Darlene learned how to operate our live-stream. 
• Janet and crew reunited with family in England after a ten year absence. 
• Pam travelled and travelled and travelled. 
• Joan went to Scotland and came home to a mountain of recycling. 
  

At SPPC Rev. Irwin preached a series on the Book of Revelation, i.e. the end of our Bible. On the first Sunday of September, he preached on Genesis 1, the beginning. Seems like an "alpha and omega" moment to me.

As we turn to Genesis, we read about God creating the day and the night, the sky, the seas, and the earth. He populated the seas with living things, filled the skies with birds and the land with animals. At the end of each day, God looked upon what He had created and declared it "Good." Finally, God created humanity, in His own image. He placed them in the garden of Eden and gave them dominion over all other creatures. On the seventh day, God rested.

After that, things became "not so good." 

On Saturday I listened to a Vinyl Café story about a grade five lad who goes to the store to buy school supplies. He gets a pink eraser, a bottle of white-out and a roll of correction-tape. He forgot to buy notebooks or pencils to, as his dad says, "put his errors in."

I wonder if God was tempted to use the eraser and the white-out to eliminated His troublesome "error" when humanity allowed sin to enter Eden. In fact, we read in the story of Noah and the flood, that God did destroy much of Creation because of man's disobedience. But, Noah followed God's commands, and the living creatures of the earth were saved. When the flood waters receded, life on earth returned. God promised never again to destroy all living things and He placed a rainbow in the sky as a remembrance of His promise.

Now, as we all start back to "school" we'll need the erasers, or the "delete" key regularly. We will make mistakes, but we can rub them out and start over, secure in the knowledge that God won't give up on us. Whether our path is "straight and narrow" or filled with bumps and twists and detours, God is ready to forgive and forget. When God forgives, He erases our errors, not even leaving a smudge on the paper.

I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more. Isaiah 43:25

For I will forgive their wickedness
    and will remember their sins no more. Hebrews 8:12

As we set out on the new term at SPPC, let us remember God's mercy and His providence. Let us be faithful and bold in our service to Him.