ODJ: Run with It!

December 8, 2016 

READ: Genesis 1:27-31 

God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it” (v.28).

Siobhan Dowd, a British author of young adult novels, died of cancer at age 47. After her death another author, Patrick Ness, was commissioned to finish one of her unpublished stories. A Monster Calls was published in 2011. It was a stunning success, winning both the Kate Greenaway and the Carnegie Medals, prestigious book awards in the UK. In the introduction, Ness says, “I felt—and feel—as if I’ve been handed a baton, like a particularly fine writer has given me her story and said, ‘Go. Run with it.’”

God handed the human race a “baton.” Most Bible teachers will tell you that when He uttered those famous words in Genesis 1:28 to Adam and Eve—“Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it”—He was asking humanity to carry forth His creative work on earth. In essence, God was saying, “Run with it!”

To use another metaphor, Jesus is the author of life and He’s asking us to write more life into the story He started (Acts 3:15). Consider that . . .

Abraham wrote life into God’s story by obeying His commands and walking into the unknown (Hebrews 11:8).

Ruth placed her faith in a God she hardly knew and carried the baton one step closer to Jesus (Ruth 1:16, 4:13-22).

With quiet strength, and at the risk of public disgrace, Mary wrote life into a crucial chapter of the world’s story (Matthew 1:18-19; Luke 1:38).

These are just three examples, but there are many, many more in Scripture. God is the Creator, and He asks us to join Him in His creative work. In whatever you do today, ponder this aspect of God. He could have chosen to rule the world and not involve us, but instead He invited us to be fruitful and to govern.

He handed humanity the baton. So go—run with it!

—Andy Rogers

365-day plan: 1 Thessalonians 4:1-18