a work in progress.

There may or may not be a few blogs coming from my recent immersion in the Pentateuch or the Torah or the first five books of the Bible or Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy or whatever you want to call it.

I just heard about the Greek thought creatio ex nihilo.  It means created out of nothing.  The first verb associated with God and His attributes in the Bible is created.

In the beginnning God created the heavens and the earth.

So God is Creator and in the midst of nothingness and chaos God creates…He just speaks it!  God speaks and creates something out of nothing.

Usually, when I’m channel surfing I’ll stop on Discovery Channel’s, “How It’s Made”.  I’ve seen them make anything from doughnuts to furniture–which is pretty impressive.  But they had to get there supplies from somewhere.  If they’re making furniture, they have to cut down a tree for the wood or get the cotton or leather to upholster the furniture.  They can’t just wave their magic wand and it appears.  Creatio ex nihilo is the thought or should I say truth, that God has created and creates things out of nothing.  At the sound of His voice…it’s created.  Pretty amazing, right?

The even more amazing part is this:

So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation:  everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!  2 Corinthians 5:17

There it is again!  The word creation.  I guess you can look at this in a couple of different ways.  One way you can look at this is through the lens of an individual.  When an individual is in the midst of chaos, nothingness, sin, death–God has the power to take that nothing and make it into something.  He has the power to make an individual into something brand new!

What if we look at this through a communal lens and the impact it brings to individuals around us?  Something I’ve been struggling with for some time now is bringing hope to what seems to be hopeless situations.  I’m sure I’m putting too much pressure on myself and am certain I alone cannot bring hope.  But with God’s promise of being a new creation and creating something new out of nothing, maybe me just being in Christ and Christ being in me is just enough.  Through the work of the Holy Spirit, maybe me just being who I am in Christ brings hope, newness and life amidst chaos and darkness in the community and people around me.

When all is said and done, when all is chaotic, when all is dark, when it seems there’s nothing else, nowhere to go, nowhere to turn, when people around you seem hopeless, helpless and hurt–remember creatio ex nihilo.  Created out of nothing.  God can create anything out of nothing.

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