Making Lemonade from the Lemons Life Gives You
The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.
Genesis 1:2 (NKJV)
I have always wondered about the second verse of Genesis 1, and how it contrasts with verse 1. At first glance the two verses do not seem to follow a coherent order. Something feels wrong; perhaps there is an error in the author's train of thought, or perhaps he mistook the account. Yet the Holy Spirit makes no errors. After this process of elimination I concluded that if it is there, He wanted me to see it and to understand something about Him and about life.
This verse holds deep meanings and connotations for life on earth. It is unorthodox, surprising and full of contrasts. That a creation of God could be so chaotic, so formless and so plunged into darkness is a heart-wrenching message: that life, as a creation of God, assures us of chaos, darkness and formlessness. We can be sure that every human being will at some point in his life have to face a Genesis 1:2; it is a given. Jesus Himself echoes it: in the world you will have tribulation. There is no flattery here; life by design is tough, chaotic and messy. Please understand that the earth in this regard represents a creation of God totally at His mercy. It cannot refuse the condition it is in; it can only surrender itself to the sovereignty of God and trust that God knows what He is doing. This speaks directly to the clay that we are. Adam, made of dust, is the symbol of God's greatest achievement, and he too, like this earth, must learn to surrender to the sway of his Creator. Chaos is a necessary process on the way to order.
Yet in the incredible situations we find ourselves in, or will find ourselves in, God is there by His Spirit, brooding, incubating and waiting to bring order, light, shape and form to our lives. He is there to restore and recreate every broken and incomplete part of us. This could not be a more powerful message for the despondent, hopeless and pained reader who, like verse 2, has experienced such shocking, chaotic and unexpected events that you wonder whether God is there. But He is. He is right there in the chaos.
Another thought arises from day and night, light and darkness. They imply the intentionality of God in creation: He purposefully made light coexist equally with darkness, so that man could learn to function in both. To be human, then, is to learn to navigate the darkness of life as effortlessly as the light. It is dangerous to live only in the light; we must learn to function in darkness and all it entails. This is a harsh truth. God allows both darkness and light, and in ordering the day we see that God places night before day, just as in Genesis 1:2 we are introduced to chaos before order, formlessness before form, and darkness before light. Life works in this antithetical order, so that we gain a greater appreciation of what is valuable when it is present, through the etched memory of life in its absence.
God wants to give you a sense of the value of living for Him. That is why we start out as sinners, murderers and thieves, and then meet His grace, and from that encounter fall ever more in love with Him; it seems to deepen our fealty to Him. When the weight and disparity of our own sin bring us to hopelessness, a Saviour is most treasured. But I digress. The pattern of life informs us of the necessity of all that Genesis 1:2 describes to us. It is important, imperative and indispensable to our victories in life, and this, my friend, is the perceivable pattern of life: your best will be preceded by your worst season. Job's greatest years came after his worst period, and Abraham's appointment as the father of faith was preceded by decades of childlessness and ridicule, with all the pain they brought him.
For the joy that was set before Him, He endured the cross. God is calling you to adopt the same attitude today, and to understand that however dark, chaotic and painful your present situation is, however hopeless it seems, He is there, and the outcome of it all will be far beyond your wildest dreams. It will be very good, and you will thank yourself, and Him, for not giving up. That is what I am getting at. Never, ever throw in the towel; never draw back. Keep pacing forward, through the pain and misery. Genesis 1:2 was not forever; it was momentary. God is forever, and as long as you have Him, you will outlast, outlive and overcome anything. It is all right to cry, but it is not all right to give up; that is to reject the human course. You are a human being, a child of God, and you are tough. Believe it, and it will make your experience of life a great deal easier. Chaos is a certainty, but order is an even greater certainty, because God will be glorified and will have the final say.