In the Beginning

Annie

Scriptures: Psalm 139 Jeremiah 1:5 Job 10:8-11

How do you describe nothingness? In my human experience, nothing is always contained by something; an empty space still has boundaries, a hole is always in the midst of solid matter, whatever that matter may be. And, is an empty bottle really filled with nothing? Unless a vacuum is deliberately created, it is filled with air, so, not nothing.

Yet, before God created the heavens and the earth, there was nothing, absolutely, totally nothing. If your mind can grasp that, then you have done more than I have, I truly don’t know how to understand this with my human mind. What is even more outrageously inconceivable to my puny brain, is that I was known and loved by God before He began this whole project, and so were you, along with every other person that has ever been conceived. Not, all who have made it to full term in their mother’s womb and then born. All those who have been conceived are loved so deeply by God, are immensely precious in His sight, whether their lives are just a few heartbeats long or whether they live to a ripe old age.

As Ruach Elohim hovered over the face of this Earth, an Earth that was without form, shape or life, devoid of everything that we now recognise as “earthly”, it was His breath that breathed life into the beginnings of the creation that the Word had spoken into being. This was the beginning of the creation of the whole cosmos, all the galaxies and universes, whether we know they exist or not. The heavenly bodies that are described in the Book of Job, the maps of the heavens that astronomers continue to expand as the power of their telescopes increase, all of this amazing creation began out of nothing. Or did it?

Why would God, who is and always has been totally all sufficient, existing outside of time and space, in a dimension we can never comprehend within our human restrictions, choose to create all of this? From what we know in our Bible, and from what our hearts tell us, it was out of pure, unbridled, extravagant, unfettered Love. Because He is everything, it was, and still is, His ultimate desire to share that everything with everyone. That Love that God is pours out of Him in such creativity, such amazing imagination, and is the source of all that is in our world. Without this Love there would be nothing, not nothing as we see it, but utter nothingness. His thoughts toward us are beyond counting, He knows the number of hairs upon our heads, each of our days is already safe in His hands and He is fully aware of what our path on this earth is and how long it will last. And, for those who are willing to trust this Love, the unremitting joy will never end, never.

As we walk into this new chapter that is 2024, may I offer up a challenge? Will you join me in searching more deeply into what is beyond the words we read in our Bible? I love that we are able to take Jesus at His word when He told us that searching the scriptures will not bring us Life, we have to go to Him and then we will have Life more abundantly as He opens the scripture to us. These recorded words are the inerrant, Holy Spirit inspired Word of God Himself, therefore they are so much more than simply words, when Jesus leads us through them, they exude Life and Joy and Power beyond measure.

So, let us begin this journey to believe that the One who breathed life into us, who knew us before we were created, is ready and waiting to walk with us, leading and guiding us into a deeper, more wonderful relationship with Him. Our Triune God, Creator and Sovereign Lord of all, has a treasure of new delights, new insights and ever fresh inspiration for us all, if we open our hearts and allow Him to reveal Himself to us.

Prayer:   Abba Father, walk with us, step by faltering step as we seek to know You more, love You more and see You more. In Jesus’ Name and by the power of Holy Spirit we pray. Amen