15 Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation,
Dear Lord Jesus, you are most worthy of our adoration, affection, and allegiance. Because of you, we don’t have to guess what God’s is like, or worse, create our own image of him. Everything we need to know about God is revealed in and through you. With the Father and Spirit, you have always existed in perfect relationship and unimaginable wonder.
16 for through him God created everything in the heavenly realms and on earth. He made the things we can see and the things we can’t see—such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world. Everything was created through him and for him.
Everything that exists has been created by you and for you—things visible and invisible; things that comfort us (food, air, and water) and things that threaten us (thrones, kingdoms, and rules). You’re not “just” Creator, you’re the heir of everything.
17 He existed before anything else, and he holds all creation together.
And though things often seem random, out-of-control, and anarchic, you—quite literally, have the whole world in your hands—sustaining and orchestrating, planning and effecting. Sovereign grace, not karma, rules.
18 Christ is also the head of the church, which is his body.
You love your church more than we can imagine, and as surely as you have justified her, you will beautify her. Forgive us for thinking we can have you, and not her.
He is the beginning, supreme over all who rise from the dead. So he is first in everything.
Because of your resurrection, we too have been raised spiritually, and will be raised physically. Hallelujah, death has been crushed. Your supremacy, in and over all things is unthreatened, and will be fully manifest one Day. We can hardly wait!
19 For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ, 20 and through him God reconciled everything to himself. He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ’s blood on the cross.
Heaven and earth will be married and mar-less, once again. The finished work of your cross has secured the eternal peace for which we long—in us and all around us. Everything sad will come untrue; all things broken will become all things new; all cacophony will give way to eternal symphony. Come, Lord Jesus, come! So very Amen we pray, in your grace-full and mighty name.
