Let There Be
I’m excited today to introduce you to a precious friend of mine…Michael. He’s a writer like for real, and crazy smart!! He puts up with me so he’s basically a saint. He makes me think deeper, and love harder. I hope you enjoy his thoughts like I do. Lets all welcome Michael to Grace for the Journey today…
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. 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. Genesis 1:1-2 (ESV)
Imagine it. Before creation.
We all have an image in our heads of what life (or whatever pre-life is technically called) was like before “the beginning”. But the truth is, none of us really know. None of us can know. We aren’t equipped to understand what existed before anything existed. In fact, that very sentence makes no sense within the rules we have constructed for life, space, time… everything that is.
We are material beings. Trapped within the framework of space and time. We cannot see beyond those boundaries, and despite our absolute faith that something exists outside of them, we don’t really expect to step past them and to find something different. When we picture eternity, we measure our fantasy with our very familiar tools of time and space. Picturing the vast expanses of heaven and imagining what a million years of worship will be like.
Despite all of our incredible theology and intellectual wonderings, we are incapable of really picturing the realm of God’s goodness without the tools and boundaries that shape our own. And yet, we know that before those boundaries existed, God already existed. Not only that, but He existed in such a deep place of authority that even things that did not exist jumped to obey the sound of His voice. In other words, without any concern for the laws and structures of everything that we know, God carried the weight of His crown. God has always been God.
I find this interesting for many reasons, but today, it is especially speaking to me because I feel like I am in that place of pre-shape. That place of emptiness and void. That place where everything that God has promised me is off in the void, waiting to be shaped into something. And I find great comfort in the thought that there was a moment where the rules and boundaries that I have come to rely on for my existence did not yet exist. I find comfort in the thought that there was a moment before life. A moment before space. A moment before time. A moment before the desires of God took shape.
I don’t know about you, but there have been many seasons of my life where I have rested in the promises of God, patiently trusting God to do the things He said He would do. Those seasons are never comfortable. In fact, they are usually quite painful. They are usually filled with anxiety and fear and pain and confusion. But Genesis 1 gives me hope. Because, no matter how far I am from the things that God has spoken to me, I can sit back and remember that there was a moment before.
The promises of God are yes and amen in Christ. Of this, we are absolutely sure. Not just because we’ve seen, but because of who He is. Even in the void, even in the nothing, we know that God has sent His Spirit to hover over the emptiness, patiently waiting for that voice of power to speak. To shape God’s will into being. To take the nothingness and to turn it into purpose.
So if you, like me, are in your season of before, don’t let yourself despair. God has not forgotten His promises. He has not changed His mind about you. The darkness has not won. You have not failed…. You may be empty, but you are not alone. The Spirit of the living God rests with you, waiting patiently to hear those Words He has been moving to satisfy since the very beginning…. Let. There. Be.
You can find Michael and his books on Amazon, and you can connect with him on Facebook, and Instagram Michaellaborn.com