image by Raheel Shakeel, on Pixabay, modified
A New Genesis
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation;
the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from
God. Who reconciled us to himself through Christ.”
—2 Corinthians 5:17-18
“you have . . . put on the new self, which is being
renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.”
—Colossians 3:10
In the beginning, Christ—the image of the unseeable
God—created the heavens and the earth, the place
of Adam’s habitat, now the place of my own dwelling.
How amazing to know . . .
that by his favor and gift of faith alone, I am a new
creation in Christ, a new self, wholly astonished to
think that within me is a new Genesis—an individual
creation story—a new beginning—full of endless
possibilities.
How amazing just to think that . . .
reality came forth from the mind of God—space,
time, matter and energy entering in the briefest of
moments. As the Spirit hovered over the waters of
Genesis—he hovered over my spiritual dullness.
As he spoke in love
to the unimaginable void, he spoke to my deaf ears and
quickened my deadened spirit.
Out of the formlessness, emptiness, and darkness of
my heart’s sinful confusion, he brought forth life: truth,
goodness, and beauty—all made known to my harassed,
orphaned soul.
And like the chaos of the newly formed
earth within the expanding cosmos—the turmoil
of my fallen existence is passing away within me in a
mighty act of holy transformation.
Yet, it’s even more amazing to know that I am
a small foreshadowing of the age to come: heaven &
earth combined—our new home—God & man together—
eternal life and divine love the everlasting bond of
joy between us all.
T.P. Bird has been published in a number of journals and is the author of
a chapbook as well as four full collections.The latest is A Loose Rendering
(Golden Antelope Press). In addition, a full collection, Upstate Trilogy, is
forthcoming sometime in 2025 from Wipf and Stock. Bird is a retired industrial
designer and minister. He lives with his wife, Sally, in Lexington, Kentucky.
February 2025 issue
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