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 After her death another author, Patrick Ness, was commissioned to finish one of her unpublished stories.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!
NLT 365-day reading plan passage for today: 1 Thessalonians 4:1-18
More:
Read Isaiah 65:17-25 and be inspired by the images of God’s future creative work.
Next:
Have you ever suffered under the control of someone else—a parent, a teacher, an employer, or a government? With this in mind, how will you respond to God’s generous invitation to be fruitful and govern what He’s made?
godlove on December 8, 2016 at 2:12 am
Thank you for this very thought-provoking post today, Andy. More than the invitation to be fruitful and to govern what God has made that, I think we are highly honoured as well, that the Supreme GOD Almighty, our Creator, should invite us to join Him and take part in His creative work! I take the call to fill the Earth and govern it, as a call to responsibility and duty-conscience as we tend for one another, for the rest of living creation (plant and animal alike), and for the Earth as a whole. It also gives a whole new direction to our lives; in this light, we don’t live just for personal fulfilment or general social interest, every little thing we do participates in God’s grand Project Earth. And like a butterfly effect, every little seemingly insignificant thing we do, will have real implications on the wider scope. None of the countless examples in Scripture knew what massive role they had in God’s Plan, it’s only with the benefit of hindsight that we can see it now. How inspiring! Whoever can say they lack direction in life? Not when you’re participating in God’s project! God offers us the baton, let’s take it firmly, and run with it responsibly. Thank you, Andy, blessings to you and to all, with love.
andylrogers on December 9, 2016 at 12:06 pm
Agreed! And thank you for reading. 🙂
Gary Shultz on December 8, 2016 at 5:58 am
Hi Andy: We have been given life and breath and while Adam and Eve were sinless was this baton passed. We still get to do those things that God gave us to do; however, running free became rather jaded. So we run this race within boundaries which you point out with the inclusion of the lives lived in obedience to God. Actually I think we dropped the baton, lost was the original fellowship and the joy that was to be had with that pass. As Godlove uses this segment “every little thing” as he speaks about what we do in life. And God had already planned past the failure. God allowed us to continue with the baton of life and mankind felt the hole in their souls, but Jesus picked up the baton for us and gave a path of restoration. We do run (live life) and we are asked to run in likeness of Jesus. To live humbly, wisely and obedient, closer to the Christmas statement “God with us”. Thanks Andy. The Christmas Baton.
gagirllive on December 8, 2016 at 7:58 am
Hi, Andy. There’s a lot to chew on here. To be honest, I had to read it several times, and I’m still not sure that it’s clicking with me. There’s no lack of clarity on your part. It’s just that I’m having trouble processing the metaphor you used. May I explain? I see all of life—from eternity past through eternity future—as God’s story. When He created mankind, He invited us into His story. We messed it up, but that was no surprise to Him because His story has always been the story of redemption. (I believe redemption was always His Plan A with no Plan B.) Unlike Mr. Ness, we don’t take liberty in “finishing” God’s story the way we deem fit because 1) He hasn’t died, and 2) His purposes and plans can’t be altered. I’m sure Mr. Ness tried to keep the story true to the integrity of the author who started it, but in the end he finished writing someone else’s story, didn’t he? I don’t think we can do that with God. We have been given the Bible which gives us revelation of how God’s story “ends”. It’s already been written in full, and the only thing we can do is cooperate with Him through faith and obedience. So if God “passing the baton” to us means us cooperating with God’s kingdom plan, then I say “Amen”. But if passing the baton means we take up the story where God left off—as though to say, “Ok, God, I got this now.”, then I’d have to disagree. Oh my goodness, Andy! I’m probably over-thinking what you intended to be a very simple devotional for us today! 🙂 Thank you for you patience in reading through my mess of thoughts on this. Grace and peace to all of you wonderful writers in this ministry this Christmas season!
sandy229 on December 8, 2016 at 12:19 pm
I have to agree GAgirl, I don’t think God intended to pass us the baton so we could say, “OK God, I got this now”. We are nothing without Him. If you are overthinking this, then I am as well. God’s story was written before the beginning of time and He never intended for us to run the race alone.
hsnpoor on December 8, 2016 at 5:51 pm
Or, ahead of Him (as if we could)….
sandy229 on December 8, 2016 at 7:11 pm
Yes, or ahead of Him. 🙂
andylrogers on December 9, 2016 at 12:13 pm
Hi Gagirllive and everyone,
Yes, I see your point. The baton metaphor breaks down pretty quickly. In this article I wasn’t trying to say that God let go of the baton and now we finish the race however we see fit. Rather, I was using the image of passing the baton as an encouragement or us to participate in God’s creative work on earth. But I can see the limits of that image now. Thanks for pointing it out!
Blessings to you all. Thanks for reading.
Andy Rogers
Marlena Graves on December 8, 2016 at 8:08 am
Andy,
Thank you for this. It’s encouraging!
andylrogers on December 9, 2016 at 12:14 pm
Thanks, Marlena!
sandy229 on December 8, 2016 at 12:37 pm
Each of us has something to give. We can give our money and our time to charity, be a friend to someone who is sick or lonely, do volunteer work, or be a peacemaker, teacher or minister. We may give unselfishly of our time to our spouse, children or parents. We may choose a service-oriented occupation, or we may just do our everyday jobs with integrity and respect for others.