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My friend, Kwame stopped me in the hallway the other day; from the way he tugged at my shirt I could tell he had a lot on his mind. “It’s Ndlovu”, he said, without my having to prompt him, “he’s gone missing!” Those three words told me all I needed to know and why he was in such distress. Ndlovu was Kwame’s childhood friend. They had been raised on the same council estate in East London. But that was about all they had in common, apart from their friendship of course. You see Ndlovu was gifted, no that is putting it mildly; he was a child prodigy. From the day he set his long tapered fingers on the ivory white keys of the grand piano in the school hall; you could tell this one was set apart for greatness.

One scholarship after the other funded the rest of his education, leading up to his attending the top schools with specialism in classical piano. All seemed set for his reach for stardom, until this drug habit came along. Nothing anyone did seemed to rehabilitate him. The inevitable set in; he cut off all ties with friends and family. For Kwame, he was a constant source of worry and anxiety. I can’t remember how often Kwame had vigils on his behalf.

Many of us can relate with this story; the story of the star that blinks and goes out without ever getting a chance to shine. Some intricately woven celestial conspiracies seem to rage against the fullness of the shining of certain individuals, particularly those whose destiny show signs of being colourful.

I know, because I am about to introduce you to one who I describe as a peculiar case. He was born in the hovel, yet in spite of having inherited a death sentence; he ended up being raised in the palace, as a prince! He had the best education in his time, for at that time the society in which he lived was the most civilized on earth.

Our number concept, you know the good old 1,2,3, - 10 which you and I take for granted were developed by them. The Pythagoras theorem originates from work done by their farmers in trying to calculate the amount of land around the delta basin of their great river. This man had the best education anybody could ask for. I always ask myself how it was possible for his life to be so different from his father’s for while his father never left their hovel, he grew up in glamour.

Yet this individual, by the way, he name is Moses, by the time God met with him the Bible tells us he was on the back side of a desert!  There are no opportunities in the desert, in fact there’s nothing in the desert apart from sand! But to tell us how remote he was from his colourful destiny, we are told he was on the back side of the desert. You know even physically, nobody presents their back side first; we always meet others with our faces.

But by the time the God of new beginning was done with him. He was leading a great nation out of captivity and well on the way to a relationship with God which enabled him to write the first five books of the Bible, including of course Genesis which tells the story of creation. Wouldn’t you like to be able to tell the creation story firsthand?

I believe there is more ahead, than there is behind any of us. I pray that this morning you will connect with the God of new beginning, in the name of Jesus.