October 26, 2026
Today's Reading: Genesis 1:1-2:3
Daily Lectionary: Deuteronomy 28:1-22; Matthew 18:1-20
“And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good.” (Genesis 1:31)
In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.
In the beginning, God created. He didn’t have to. He wasn’t lonely or bored. He didn’t create the world because something was missing in His life. God is perfect and complete in Himself - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - eternally blessed in the communion of the Holy Trinity. He created simply because He wanted to. Creation is an act of pure love and generosity.
Notice how He creates! He creates by speaking. “God said, ‘Let there be light, and there was light.” He doesn’t struggle or strain. He doesn’t experiment or make mistakes. He speaks, and it happens. His Word is that powerful. When God speaks, things come into existence. When God speaks, chaos becomes order. When God speaks, darkness becomes light.
This matters for you. The same God who spoke the universe into existence has spoken to you in your Baptism. He has called you by name and claimed you as His own child. The same creative power that brought forth stars and galaxies, mountains and oceans, is the power that has made you a new creation in Christ. You didn’t cooperate with God in your Baptism any more than the light cooperated with God when He called it into being. God spoke, and you became His.
Six different times in Genesis 1, we read “And God saw that it was good.” Then, after creating mankind in his image, male and female, God looks at everything He has made and declares it “very good.” All of creation - including you - came from God’s hand bearing His stamp of approval. Sin has corrupted and twisted what God made; we know that. But it hasn’t destroyed the fundamental goodness of creation. You are not an accident. You are not a cosmic mistake. You were created by God, in His image, and He called you very good.
But there’s more. After sin entered the world and ruined what God had made good, God didn’t abandon His creation. Instead, He spoke again. He promised a Savior who would crush the serpent’s head, and in the fullness of time, the Word through whom all things were made flesh and dwelt among us. Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, entered His own creation to redeem it and restore it.
On the seventh day, God rested from His work of creation. But after sin, God took up a new work - the work of redemption. And that work was finished on a Friday afternoon when Jesus cried out from the cross, “It is finished.” Now, in Christ, you are not only a creature made by God but a new creation redeemed by God. The same Word that brought you into existence has brought you back to life.
In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.
O Lord, our creator, redeemer, and comforter, we praise you for bringing all things into being by the power of your Word, and for speaking that same Word to us in Christ Jesus. Grant that we may always remember we are Your beloved creatures and Your redeemed children, now and forever. Amen.
Rev. Dr. Thomas Brown, pastor of Saint Paul Lutheran Church in Spearfish, SD.
Where are you looking for meaning? In Lift Your Eyes: How to Live Outside Yourself author Joshua Pfeiffer charts a compelling path outward: upward to God in faith and gratitude, outward to our neighbors in love and service, and forward in joyful anticipation of resurrection.
