Do you remember the last time you were consciously trying to make a good first impression? Maybe at an interview or starting in a new job? Perhaps it was meeting the parents or moving into a new neighbourhood? 

For thousands of university students, right now every day is a day of first impressions. They are meeting hundreds of people at the same age and stage, and everyone is trying to find friends, work out where they fit, and make a good impression. Right now our work is focused on helping students and churches connect well for the first time.

All sounds a bit intense doesn’t it? But the amazing opportunity of first impressions is you can reframe who you are and what you want to be about. If you didn’t like who you were at school, or how you treated people in your last work place, you have a chance to start differently, to be kinder, more confident, the best version of you. First impressions can be second chances.

I wonder what your first impression of God has been? I wonder what first impression Jesus made? We read in the Bible that the first stuff he chose to speak about was blessing, and good news to all humanity, especially those most downtrodden by society. And God is a God who offers second chances. Hence Jesus came to earth.

That’s a strong first impression. Good news.

Father God, I pray the first impression we make today would be good news. Help us pay more attention to the people in front of us and help every student navigating this right now. Amen.

Blog taken from BBC Radio 4's 'Prayer For The Day': listen HERE to the broadcast (none of us were up at 5.43am after all!)

Photo by Lucas Ludwig on Unsplash