Welcome to today's encouragement from Our Daily Bread.

I'm Kirsten Holmberg and I titled our devotion, Beating as One.

Stories have captivated humans since the dawn of creation, functioning as a way to pass down knowledge long before

written language existed. We've all known the delight of hearing or reading a story and being

immediately engaged by such opening lines as, Once Upon a Time. The power of a story appears to

extend beyond mere enjoyment.

When we listen to a story together, our heartbeats seem to synchronize.

Though our individual heartbeats vary over the course of a day and might only match

another's coincidentally, new research indicates our hearts may all fall into the same rhythm when we hear the same

story at the same time.

In Genesis 1-1, God begins telling us his story with the words, in the beginning.

From the moment Adam and Eve first drew breath, God has used that unfolding

story to shape not just our individual lives, but also, and perhaps more importantly,

our collective lives as his children. Through the Bible, the most magnificent nonfiction story ever recorded.

Our hearts as believers in Jesus are joined together as people set apart for his purposes.

In response, may our hearts beat in shared rhythm, delighted by the author's creative works.

And may we share his story with others, declaring his glory among the nations, his marvelous

deeds among all peoples, inviting them to become part of it too.

Today's Our Daily Read Devotional Scripture reading is from Genesis chapter 1, verse 1 and verses 27 through 31.

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. So God created mankind in his own image. In the image of God,

he created them. Male and female, he created them. God blessed them and said to them, be fruitful and increase in number. Fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the

birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground. Then God said,

...