In The Beginning

In the Beginning

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

Genesis 1:1

Sitting on his prison cot, Carlos opened the Bible to what he later would discover was Genesis 1:1.

In addition to simple words such as in and the, Carlos knew the word God. So he went through the first chapter and counted the number of words he could recognize. As he looked at the other unfamiliar words, he ran his fingers over the print as if willing their meanings to enter through his touch.

The next morning, he saw his cell-block neighbor writing a letter.

“Where’d you get the paper?” Carlos asked.

The man didn’t look up. “The chaplain.”

Back at his cell with newly acquired paper and pen, Carlos laboriously printed the words beginning and created, then folded the paper so it would fit in the palm of his hand. On his way to lunch, Carlos showed the paper to the man who had been writing the letter earlier.

“What are these words?” he asked quietly, afraid the man would ridicule him. But the other prisoner merely glanced at the paper and replied just as quietly, “The first word is beginning; the other is created. Why?”

“No reason,” Carlos replied. “Just wondering. Thanks.”

Later, in his cell, Carlos looked at the verse again and slowly mouthed, “In the beginning God created.” A surge of hope ran through him, and he read the words again: “In the beginning God created.”

Those five words were the start of an incredible journey for Carlos as each day he wrote two or three more words on paper and showed them to inmates he knew could read. It took him eight days to get through the thirty-one verses of chapter 1. In the weeks that followed, he not only learned to read but also discovered a hunger for what God might create in his own life.

After serving six years of his sentence, with time off for good behavior, Carlos stepped into freedom and into the welcoming arms of his praying wife. Within a few years, he had earned his GED and graduated from a local Bible school. Today, he and Rose minister in a small church filled with other folks who need the hope of those words written so long ago: “In the beginning God created.” —SANDRA

Lord, create in me a new beginning. You who created the heavens and the earth certainly can create a new being out of who I am. Help me to give you my past, my present, and my future. And help me not to get in your way.

What can be more foolish than to think that all this rare fabric of heaven and earth could come by chance, when all the skill of science is not able to make an oyster. —JEREMY TAYLOR (1613–1667), ENGLISH CLERGYMAN AND AUTHOR