In the beginning, God created the heavens and the Earth. He created the fox, the rabbit, the seagulls, and the doves. He created the stars in the night sky. He created the oceans, with their rolling waves lapping gently at the shores. He created the Garden of Eden, a place of immense peace and beauty.
Then he created man… and we did what we do best: we screwed it all up!
Did we mean to mess things up so badly? Had Eve known what would happen when she gave in to the serpent’s temptation, would she have made a different decision? Had Adam known what would come of listening to her, would he have chosen differently? I’d like to think that, yes, today’s world would be much different. Unfortunately, I don’t really believe that. As a species, we are impossible. We can’t seem to help ourselves. If there is any possible way to screw something up, we will find it. It’s human nature. It’s our fatal flaw.
The same can be said for our personal lives. They start so simple and carefree, so innocent. But over time, we corrupt it. We take what was once beautiful and twist it into something almost unrecognizable. It’s almost as if we can’t survive and thrive without the chaos and challenges that come with the territory. As if, without this loss of innocence, we are something less. Something undeserving, something ugly and meaningless. But that couldn’t be further from the truth. We ARE deserving. We do have meaning and purpose. And we are not less, but so much more than the sum of our pasts.
In the beginning, I was an innocent newborn. Then I grew up and made choices, much like our original forbears. Those choices led me down many different paths, some good, some bad. Some of those choices led me down very dark and lonely paths. All of them taught me life lessons that I could not have otherwise learned. And.. I got better.
So, while beginnings are generally thought of as a means to an end, a way to get from point A to point B, a starting point for whatever weirdness, sorrows, and joys that life has in store for us, they are much more. They are an opportunity to make a change. They are a chance to do things right.
