For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth… All things were created through Him and for Him.
—Colossians 1:16
So often we start in the wrong place. We get the pieces of our lives out on the table, our goals, our plans, our relationships, our schedules, and we start arranging them, and only later, maybe, do we try to work God in somewhere around the edges. Then we wonder why nothing quite fits.
But Jesus is where we need to start. He is the beginning. Paul tells the Colossians that “by Him all things were created,” everything in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, “all things were created through Him and for Him.” In fact, without Him, nothing was made that has been made. If He is the beginning of everything that exists, then surely, He must be the beginning of how we order our own lives.
Look closely at those two little words Paul uses: through Him and for Him. Everything was made through Him, so He is the source. And everything was made for Him, so He is the goal. That means you were made for Him too. You are not an accident, not a random collection of molecules, and not your own project to manage however you please. You were made through Jesus and for Jesus.
This is exactly why starting anywhere else leaves us restless. We try to build a life around our career, our family, our comfort, our dreams, good things, many of them, and we still come up empty, because we were made for Someone bigger than all of them. A thing made for one purpose never works right when it’s bent toward another.
Whenever we sit down to plan our lives, many of us start by making resolutions. We define our goals and our dreams and lay out a schedule to achieve them. There’s nothing wrong with goals. But if the first move is to map out our plans and then ask God to bless them, we’ve started in the wrong place. The first question isn’t “What do I want to accomplish?” It’s “What does the King want, and how do I seek Him first?”
Think of it like building. No builder starts with the roof. You start with the foundation, and everything else is laid on top of it. Jesus is the foundation. When you start with Him, the rest of life has something solid to rest on. Start anywhere else and the whole structure is unstable from the first board.
So, before you set your next goal, before you rearrange the furniture of your life one more time, go back to the beginning. Go back to Jesus. Let the One through whom and for whom you were made be the first thing and then build everything else on top of Him.
We all need a beginning. And Jesus is the beginning. Start there, and you’ll finally be building on something that lasts.
YOU WERE MADE THROUGH JESUS AND FOR JESUS. HE IS THE BEGINNING, SO START THERE AND BUILD EVERYTHING ELSE ON HIM.
