All the fullness of God

For you, O Lord, make me glad by your work;

At the works of your hands I sing for joy. Psalm 92:4

 

Read Colossians 1:18—23
I think tonight of my local church. Jesus is the head of it. It is his. He won it for himself. I think of my friends who have died. Jesus is their head. He died before them and he died for them and he was raised, so he is firstborn for them. We’re not really limited by death in our little church. I think of what any of us could have been doing this day. We have each invested our energies in something. Jesus has first place in it all. All our activities are rightly his. I think of the thoughts we share in our discussions at the coffee pot. No, God is not the product of our perception or ideas or understanding: all God’s fullness dwells in Jesus. Therefore we know God not by sharing our thoughts about God but by being reconciled to him. This reconciliation is promised to heaven and earth. So our thoughts about God are centred in the cross of Jesus, our reconciliation, but from this centre they go far and wide, because he promises the reconciliation of all things. It is a very big life my little church inhabits!

Prayer
This night, Lord Christ, it is my greatest joy and privilege to honour you as head of my church, as first-born from the dead, as first place in all creation and in all my daily experience. This night I am again lost in wonder, love and praise, that the fullness of God dwells in you. And I thank you that I, even I, am included in the reconciliation of all things in heaven and on earth.