100 Days of HopeSample

And

“And” is the most important word. We can’t even describe God without it. He is Father and Son and Holy Spirit—three persons, one God.

The key to And’s genius? It holds together things that are distinct but inseparable. So God filled his creation with sun and moon, sea and dry land, birds and creeping things, male and female—diverse parts woven together into one good world.

Unfortunately, our world doesn’t always display this goodness. The sea sometimes rises up and swamps the dry land. The lion eats the lamb. The man forsakes the woman. Even our own lives break down. This all points to a deeper problem: the most fundamental union—between God and man—is broken. Thus we reap all the confusion, fallout, and fragmentation that happens when And is put asunder.

The good news is that God has a plan for the fullness of time to unite all things in Christ. So union with Jesus ushers us into a new reality: All the disparate parts of our lives and our world will be put back together. We can experience more-and-more of that today as we learn to practice the words of our King: “What God has joined together, let no man pull apart” (Matt. 19:6).

Prayer: Father, thank you for uniting, reconciling, and offering hope for a broken world. Help us to be your united agents of reconciliation.