8-8-08

Today is August 8th, 2008, 8-8-08. Its a day the world has been waiting for, as it marks the opening day of the Olympic Games in Beijing, China.

As the numbers 8-8-08 have appeared over and over again on my TV screen over the last few months advertising the coming Olympics, I have been reminded of another 8th Day that we seldom think about or talk about. That is, the 8th Day as the 1st Day of God's New Creation.

The early Christians celebrated Sunday as “the eighth day,”a new way of living and being in the wake of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. They saw that God’s creative activity was continuing through Christ's redemptive and restorative work. On the first day of the week, God created the heavens and the earth. Centuries later, Jesus also rose from the dead on the first day of the week, which began a whole new creation for the church and for the world. One author has written that "the seven-day week could not hold the fullness of God’s creative time, and so the first day, embracing eternity as well as its own twenty-four hours, had to spill over. The first day, therefore, has become the eighth day.Through faith in Jesus Christ we are now living in the reality of things that were only hoped for in previous times. This gives us a whole new way of living. It’s this present reality in Christ that gives us a whole new beginning, a fresh start, a new lease on life. Its a new day, the 8th day.

The first day of God's new creation in Christ.