Out of Nothing

One of the most daunting things for a writer, or an artist is the blank piece of paper.  Its very blankness intimidates you and your mind goes into a swirling mass of “nothingness”. 

I was working with a group of children recently, sharing with them about being an author and illustrator.  The children were then given a piece of paper, pencils and crayons to write or draw their own story.  For many children the blank piece of paper paralysed them and sent them into a panic.  They didn’t know where to begin. Others started and then stopped, asking me for a rubber to correct and tidy up their work. It wasn’t right, it was wrong, they needed lines to guide them – their perfectionism and angst preventing their work.  Their responses intrigued me, reminding me of my own “terror” of the blank piece of paper.

Nothingness, chaos, confusion, or darkness do not intimidate God, however. In fact, God does his best work when faced with messy, chaos, empty and dark. We read it right in the first few sentences of the Bible,

“…the earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. And God said, “let there be light,” and there was light….”

In Hebrew, the words tohu and wabohu are used to describe the universe, as formless, void, empty, chaotic, without function or focus.  The perfect “blank piece of paper”.

Like a bird sitting on a nest, brooding over, protecting, covering eggs that contain embryonic chaotic mess, the Spirit of God hovers over the face of the deep.  The darkness is filled with pregnant expectation, a creative presence. God is present. God creates something out of nothing. God speaks and there is light – darkness recedes. 

Many, many times this passage has inspired me to pray. Faced so often with mess, confusion, swirling chaotic circumstances when we frankly don’t know what to do, how to pray or what to say, we can ask the Spirit of God to hover, to brood over these things and bring light, life, purpose to birth just as He did in the beginning.

All we need, just like the children I was working with, is that one word from God that sparks us into life or action, that brings direction, hope and life.  God spoke, and there was light.  God spoke again, and again, and again.  Each time God spoke he filled this empty void with life, colour, shape and form.

From the stunning beginning of Genesis 1,  the wonder, the vast scale, the diversity of creation explodes out of the tohu and wabohu right through the bible as God turns messy into amazing! Undoubtedly the greatest creative act and start of a new Genesis was the resurrection of Jesus and the redemption of this messy, chaotic, confused dark world.

Not only does God do this for the whole creation, he does it for you and me.  Right as our lives are being formed, in the darkness of the womb, Psalm 139 informs us that God is present hovering over us.  Even when our lives are marred, messy and in desperate need of a “rubber” God is present and able to create beautiful works of art from the blank canvas of our lives.  

Every child who came to me troubled about their blank piece of paper, told me their concerns and together we looked for ways to solve them – whether it was ideas, a starting sentence, or lines to write on – they leaned in to listen for that one word that would get them going or “unstuck” them to keep going.  How like God, when I come with my blank pieces of paper, my messy scrawls that need a rubber so that I can start again or a gentle nudge in the right direction.

No matter how messy, how dark, how chaotic life is, join with me in inviting the Spirit of God to hover over it and bring life. In the words of Eugene Peterson in The Message, “God, make a fresh start in me. Shape a Genesis week from the chaos of my life.” Psalm 51v10