The Story of God (Final Edition)

Most stories begin “Once upon a time” but our story begins with “There is a God”, and He lives in Heaven, where He watches over you and where He loves you with an everlasting love. When you look in the book, the early words say, “In the beginning God”, some of the faint words say, “For God so loved, He planned to give”. The first chapter in the book we have says, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, and God made man in His own image, and He placed them in the Garden”. God gave them one law, and one penalty, and the penalty was Death. In time man broke that law. Now you would think that God would destroy any creature that broke His law, but not God. God knew who would pay the price, and He made man anyway, and God began to whisper The Word. You couldn’t understand it at first, but He said it with such tenderness that you knew it represented His very heart.Men continued to sin and God sent a flood; and men continued to sin and God whispered the Word a little louder to Abraham, and set the plan in motion to send The Word to men.God continued to whisper The Word and He used men like Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. God used men like Joseph and Moses, and all the while He whispered The Word. He used Joshua, Gideon and Samuel. He whispered The Word through David, Solomon, Elijah and the prophets, and, while sin remained, the voice of God was getting louder as He just kept saying The Word.Then one night the voice broke through and The Word became flesh and the angels proclaimed, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom His favor rests. Today a Savior has been born to you; He is Christ the Lord”.It was through the life of Jesus Christ that God chose to reveal His heart. It was His name that was whispered throughout the ages, and it was His life that would be sacrificed for the sin of man. God showed man who He was through the life of Christ, and He showed man His heart. The God of the beginning is not capricious, but caring. God does not want to strike man down; He longs to lift him up. The God of the beginning is not far away in a distant place, but He is near, and He cares about you.He showed us how He cares when The Word walked among us. God showed that He cares about our hurts when a father came to Jesus because his daughter was dying. And at the time of the father’s greatest hurt when he heard his daughter had died, Jesus showed us the heart of God when he said, “Don’t be afraid, just believe”. Jesus gave that little girl life and He gave that father his little girl back. You see, God cares about those grievous hurts in the life of man. When the lepers came, Jesus touched them and they were healed. When those tortured by demons came, Jesus released them. The blind could see and the lame could walk, with just a word or a touch from the hand of The Word of God. But He didn’t just heal the body; Jesus also healed the inside of man. When the man was lowered through the roof, Jesus forgave his sin, and when the woman was caught in adultery Jesus forgave her sin. Jesus showed us that the touch of God can not only heal the body, it can heal the man. Every time Jesus touched a life you could hear God whisper The Name, and each time it grew just a little louder.God cares for man; with an abiding love God cares for man, and He is not willing to leave man without hope. God knew that the time was coming near for the price to be paid for the sin of man, man that He loved. God watched as Jesus was laid on the cross and as the nails pierced His hands. He saw the agony of Christ as He hung suspended between Heaven and earth. And He heard the cries of The Word. And when He heard Him say, “It is finished” and saw Him die, God whispered The Word one more time with such agony that the earth shook and the great veil in the Temple was ripped apart.The price had now been paid for the sin of man, but was the price too high?The silence in Heaven was deafening.How could God still care for man, when the cost was so great?Did God still care about the hurts of man?Did God still care about the sin of man?Did God still care for man?For three days not a noise was heard.But then…from the center of Heaven itself, God didn’t whisper. God proclaimed The Name clearly for all to hear. He said it so loudly that the earth shook, the stone that sealed the tomb was rolled away and the Son of God came forth alive. The angels proclaimed “He is not here…He has risen!”God has not stopped caring for man, in our hurts, in our victories and in our sin. He has not ceased whispering The Name, and there is coming a day when God will no longer whisper The Name; He will proclaim it one last time to this earth. With the trumpet blast, God will proclaim to the world one more time that Jesus Christ is Lord.Then every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that “Jesus Christ is Lord!”
By J. Tom Washburn