I just love the creation story. It’s the real first and ultimate miracle. There was nothing – absolutely nothing. Everything was void. Then God imagined it all, and spoke, and everything appeared. There was nothing. No light or dark, and then there was light, and it was different from dark. There was no earth, no land, then there was land and then water and it was different from sky. There were no plants, and then God imagined, and then spoke, and then there were all the plants. Everything is, where there once was nothing. And God saw that it was all good.

And the miracle didn’t end there. Creation continues every day. New Year’s in the winter is a relatively recent phenomenon. New Year’s used to be in the spring because of course the creation happened in the spring – all those plants blooming for the first time. Spring is the world’s birthday. It’s winter now, but soon it will be spring, and it will be creation all over again – trees blooming where now there are dead looking sticks. Flowers blooming where now there is nothing. We are all here now, but once we were not. And every day more people are born. And that’s all good. God should be pleased with his work. How amazing is it, everything that is, that at one point wasn’t. And we should be amazed and filled with praise when we see everything around us and know that at some point this did not exist.

And in the Gospel, Jesus is continuing the tradition. The people are sick, but they are healed from Jesus’ word or touch – or even by touching something he touches. Wellness is created in them where it has not been. Like the first miracle, this last miracle is still creation. Let him create in us healing, wholeness, where there had been emptiness. Every day is creation.