United Church of Christ Daily Devotional 11th July 2025 Friday Message
First Day
By Jennifer Ruth Lynn Garrison
God saw everything that [God] had made, and indeed, it was very good. – Genesis 1:31a (NRSV)
It’s the first day! Someone is tapping a mic and saying “Testing, testing” into the echoing emptiness of the worship space. The resolution worked on for hours by a local committee is still a shining idea. In the exhibit hall, brochures are spread out neatly on tables, so many colorful fans. No one has lost their voice yet. Your suitcase waits, undisturbed, in the corner of your hotel room.
Day 1 of General Synod for the United Church of Christ.
If you’ve attended any convention (religious or otherwise), you know it’s easy on the first day to view the occasion as good. The first day is so shiny, so full of promise.
However, you may find yourself sagging a little in a day or two. When a mic squeaks, again. When a resolution’s wordsmithers take too many hours to parse a single phrase. When the brochures start to crumple. When your clothes are still in the corner of the hotel room but now in an untidy pile and it’s your throat that’s sore.
If that moment comes, take a look at the thirty-first verse of the first chapter of Genesis. Six days into creation, we find our God still energized enough to proclaim all of it is good indeed. It’s not merely the goodness of the first day, when everything was still a formless void; it’s a firmer and fuller goodness.
You arrive empty. In a couple of days, it’s a safe bet that you will be tired, but you will also be full. Full of wisdom and connections, of information and music, of inspiration and ideas, of new relationships created and old ones renewed. Good, indeed.
Now, get going! Opening worship starts at 2:30pm and you don’t want to miss it!
Prayer
God, our prayers go to every person celebrating and creating the 35th Synod of the United Church of Christ, which officially begins today. Amen.
About the AuthorRev. Jennifer Garrison (formerly Brownell) is a writer, spiritual director and pastor living in the Pacific Northwest. Her published work most recently appeared in the book The Words of Her Mouth: Psalms for the Struggle, available from The Pilgrim Press.