Welcome to my new blog series! I wanted to share with you the way that God has been ministering to my heart through His Word, creative time with Him and just meditating on who He is. In the process of this trial with my husband's health, letting God fill my mind with thoughts of Him has been such a comfort! And as I've explored my own understanding of my Creator, I've been inspired to draw like never before. The illustration above is my interpretation of Genesis 1:1. In the beginning...
So come with me as I try to unpack the wonder that is our Heavenly Father's love for us!
CHAOS & WASTE
The first picture I see in the Bible came from the first words in Genesis One. Many people do not understand the Word of God because they don’t understand the beginning. I want you to see in this first picture that there must be a beginning to everything!
There was a beginning when I was born. There was a beginning of my awareness of the world around me. Actually, where the pictures started was a lot more primitive than this. I just wanted my kids to know God and what the Bible said to them. I wanted them to know God existed and what the whole story was about. I want to help you find God, the Creator. Many of you believe that there is a higher power, but I want to show you what I believe started everything we see in our world.
The first picture that I saw was like God saying: “Let’s get back to basics . Time for level one.” I saw this picture of what I call Chaos and Waste. And then I saw how God hovered over it. Whether you know anything about Christianity or not, I want you to imagine that if your life has a lot of chaos and waste in it, God is hovering over you. That’s why there are the letters over the earth. These are the five letters of God’s name. The more important thing to realize is that whenever God is hovering over your life, God makes something beautiful out of your chaos and waste.
Too many theologians want to talk about things that are not relevant to you, but God wants to show you these pictures and the language that comes from these pictures that explains how powerful our Creator God is.
The Bible says, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” So, the simplest way I could show you this, in a picture, is to show the earth and the heavens. The Word says, “Now the earth was full of chaos and waste and darkness was on the surface of the deep. And 'Ruach Elohim' was hovering upon the surface of the water." What I see is the Holy Spirit hovering upon the surface of the water. In my mind it was like, what’s first? the chicken or the egg? But the fact is, the chicken is first because the chicken is sitting on top of the earth. And, of course, God is symbolized by the chicken; and the earth is the egg.
All we really can count on is the Word of God, and that is above us all. That’s why you see those five Hebrew letters above the earth, and now God creates space which is the egg.
I want you to experience the fact that regardless of how out-of-control and chaotic your life is, God is still over it all, and He can bring order to disorder.
To show the Earth, I had to start with a black circle on a white background. I want you to see in the picture all the random chaotic things that were in/on the earth. Things that other people had thrown away and were never meant to be created in the first place. It was a place of waste. I want you to see, in this chaos, the patterns and symbols that are violently interacting with one another.
Then a random collage of patterns and forms were just ripped apart. The earth was a catastrophe of brokenness. The earth would have never been anything, except for God. The God of the Heavens looking down on the earth is an interesting first picture in the Bible. Everyone can relate to times and seasons in your life where it looked as though everything was falling apart, and there were no answers at all. You were desperate and confused; however, the first picture shows that where you start is not where you finish. There is hope!
So let's think about these questions:
1) How do you imagine forming something you haven’t created yet?
2) What inspires you?
3) What in your life, do you believe, is chaos and waste?
4) Is God over your world, not involved in your world, or only used randomly?
In God, it really is, “All and Nothing.” Our invisible Creator is 'All in All.' There is nothing besides Him. The name 'Elohim' is a plural moniker for a singular God. And the name 'Ruach' is Hebrew for “Breath.”
Let me give you an analogy or picture of your kitchen table. On your kitchen table is everything and anything that you want to put there. There is no rhyme or reason to what is there. Anybody that would look at it would say this is an unorganized mess. Things that had just accumulated over time are a picture of disjointed clutter. Some of the things don’t even belong in the kitchen. Maybe there are car parts or outdated technology. Looking at your table you might feel things are so chaotic that you even being there is wasteful of your time and energy. You realize there is no way you can exist around all this stuff that somehow gathered in your home.
Would you want a monument of that confusion? Wouldn’t you feel overwhelmed if you knew your kitchen was always going to be this way?
When God is over your world and your space, He makes something beautiful with all those disparate things, parts, and pieces. So think about the questions I've asked above and let's start this journey together!
See you next week!
Love and Blessings,
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