“Out of Nothing”
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
And the earth was waste and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep: and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters”. Genesis 1:1-2
Beloved,
You are not alone. Safely, in hands so large they hold the earth in which you turn, you are apprehended by a perpetual covenant, day and night. Today, before you opened your eyes, strength was waiting for you. Strength was prepared. Strength held the sun at just the right angle to ever so gently kiss your sleeping eyes. Strength was in the beginning…in your beginning, in your first moments before you knew it was today, Elohiym, God, Strength was there. From the dawn of creation a hidden treasure rested in the eternal meaning of His name. Tracing the root of this name for God, Elohiym, it literally means: Deity, Supreme Strength, Chief Ram, Pillar, Tree, and Powerful as in a strong twisting.
“To whom then will ye liken me, that I should be equal to him? Saith the Holy One.
Lift up your eyes on high, and see who hath created these that bringeth out their host by number; he calleth them all by name; by the greatness of His might, and for that He is strong in power, not one is lacking”. Isaiah 40:25-26
In the beginning God twisted the fibers of light, the atoms of sound, the particles of the elements into Him, and breathed out the creative Word, and there were lights, and stars and planets, and sun and moon and you and me. By His Strength there is nothing lacking-including you. By His strength, He formed you in the hidden places of your mother’s womb, and wrote of you in His book before you were born. (Psalm 139) Your birth was ordained in as much detail as the order of the planets and the stars in the heavens. The world would be less than He intended it to be if you were not here.
It was not by chance that He predestined strength to be at the beginning of all things. He knows the weakness of our frame. He knows we are just dust, red earth limping without his breath. He conceived and created the concept of cleaving, He was THE strength prepared for our leaning. Yet, here we find in the midst of our void, our Ex Nehilio, waters without abundance, or tide, He has created and fashioned for us a depth.
Don’t you believe that there is in man a deep so profound as to be hidden even to Him in whom it is? St. Augustine
There is a cavernous void in man that was once the well spring of intimacy where the spirit of the dust of the earth, touched the spirit of eternal light, and love, and they embraced in sweet fellowship. Somehow in our deepest being we have never forgotten this place of grace; this field of delight where we danced with God. The Christian mystics glimpsed this place and forever yearned, and walked as whales on land, longing for the depth of intimacy, forever keening their song of separation.
My soul is occupied,And all my substance in His service;Now I guard no flock,Nor have I any other employment:My sole occupation is love.
If, then, on the common landI am no longer seen or found,You will say that I am lost;That, being enamored,I lost myself; and yet was found.
St. John of The Cross, Spiritual Canticles number 28,29
Our ever creating God doesn’t stop at fashioning new depth; He goes on and makes old things new again. By His strength, He takes lives- bent, corrupt, and dark, empty of any true good, lost in the lies of sin, and makes them new, now that Beloved, is amazing. So amazing the seraphim leap, and rejoice, and long to understand the mystery of re-generation. In His name we find the coming Ram that would be offered for our salvation. Eternal atonement. We see the set jaw of the Father’s Heart, to purpose His love towards us. We see His Intent upon gathering the strands of our lives and weaving us into Him, a tapestry of righteousness.
There is a saying among the Jewish people, that God created the cure before the disease. He knows what we need before we can form the words to ask him. Yet He waits to hear our voice. He, who created prayer as a means of intimacy, longs to hear our petitions. He, who desires to walk with us, meets us at the altar of our heart, brought near by the aroma of brokenness, humility, and weakness.
That is our God. Knowing what we need before we ask. Ordaining strength, before He gave us
breath, weaving tossed away strands, into beautiful tapestries, fashioning depth from our shallowness, moving towards us first, that we might lean upon Him in our wilderness. (Song of Solomon 8:5)
“Now unto him that is able to guard you from stumbling, and to set you before the presence of his glory without blemish in exceeding joy, to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion and power, before all time, and now, and for evermore. Amen” Jude 1:24-25