Void

Have you ever felt the grip of emptiness? You know that hollow feeling where a dark void forebodes in the pit of your stomach and you ache with a desire for something to fill you up or brighten your eyes. You feel estranged from the world and even yourself. This is not just depression or a forlorn desire for companionship… it’s lost in space… unraveled… cocooned in one’s own misery! I recently read an article by a friend of mine, Mike Anderson, who has an excellent blog (http://ourplace-makeadifference.blogspot.com) in which he explored how Genesis one parallels the creative and redemptive work of God in our lives. In the beginning God took a world that was void and without form in which the darkness prevailed and gave it form, shape, life and light. Mike noted that God continues to do that with His creation dispelling the empty darkness that often prevails in individuals lives. God takes our troubled waters and divides them with grace and light that frees us to see His will and direction for our life.
Mike got me thinking and wondering as well. Yes, God often takes the horrible messes we find ourselves in and turns them into a witness of His light. And if Genesis one is as much about how God takes the voids of our lives and recreates us in His Son through His Spirit as it is about creation… then maybe it explains one of those “Hey, wait a minute there” moments in Scripture. Did you ever notice in the Genesis account that God first creates light (Genesis 1:3) and divides it from the darkness calling the result night and day. However, it is not until the fourth day of creation that God creates the sun and the moon and the stars (Genesis 1:14-19). God creates light before the physics of light are given form, that is, all that shines and twinkles was created after light was created. “Hey, wait a minute there… How does that work?” On one hand for those of us who love our awesome God the answer is, “Whoa, Dude that’s awesome!” But the other hand beckons with cautious gesture to suggest it is unquestionably a divine mystery but certainly has explanation.
I think Mike is right about Genesis one… it’s as much about the redemptive power of God as it is about the fiat of creation. Light is not bound by physics or scientific delineation but echoes the presence of God in bringing true light and life to man. The psalmist says, “For with you is the fountain of life, in your light we see light (Psalm 36:9).” The apostle John says, “In him was life and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it… the true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world (John 1:4,5,9).” Light, Shekinah, Glory and brightness point to the creator and sustainer of all things. God is and creates light for the life of mankind so we may see and know that He is God! -DAN