My Answer

The question I asked in my blog posting yesterday was a surprise to those who read what I am writing which might explain why there was only one reader who responded.  In retrospect it is not something most of us can answer on the spur of the moment.  As one person suggested it might require some reading and thinking.  If only one page from the Old Testament and only one page from the New Testament could be kept while the rest was thrown away, what would those pages, or chapters, or passages be?  Maybe it was not a fair question to spring on a unsuspecting mind and heart when I have been wrestling with it for years.  

If I could only have one page from the Old Testament it would be the one containing the creation story recorded in chapter one.  It has come to be a foundation stone for my faith as well as my understanding of who I am in this world created by God.  It is a passage that begins with the coming into being of the eternal light which then shines in and through everything else that was made and is being made.  The climax of the creation comes as "God saw everything He had made and indeed it was very good."  (Genesis 1:31)  I love the inclusiveness of those words, "everything...very good."   

My New Testament choice is John 1:1-14.  Known as the Prologue of John's gospel, it connects what was written about the beginning with the new beginning which came with the Incarnation.  The eternal light present in the creation is described by John as being present in the flesh of the Son of God.  Though darkness has taken hold of the creation since the beginning, Jesus has come to penetrate the darkness and overcome it completely.  As we read and know the Incarnate One revealed to us by the writing of John, we are reminded again that all life has come into being through the eternal light, the One known as the Light of the World.  Again, toward the end of the passage, we are swept away by that word which says, "But to all who received Him, who believed in His name, He gave power to become children of God..." (John 1:12)