29/05/2023
Chaos in any form stirs fear, anxiety, and defensiveness. Chaos can make us feel unmoored, alone, swamped, and without the strength to withstand the flood.
But God is addressing the chaos in our lives. He will bring out the order for you and me.
Devotional Excerpt from the Upper Room Disciplines
Monday l May 29, 2023
Author: Ginger E. GainesCirelli
Read: Genesis 1:1-25
1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.
3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.
6 And God said, “Let there be a vault between the waters to separate water from water.” 7 So God made the vault and separated the water under the vault from the water above it. And it was so. 8 God called the vault “sky.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the second day.
9 And God said, “Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear.” And it was so. 10 God called the dry ground “land,” and the gathered waters he called “seas.” And God saw that it was good.
11 Then God said, “Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds.” And it was so. 12 The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. 13 And there was evening, and there was morning—the third day.
14 And God said, “Let there be lights in the vault of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark sacred times, and days and years, 15 and let them be lights in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth.” And it was so. 16 God made two great lights—the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. 17 God set them in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth, 18 to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19 And there was evening, and there was morning—the fourth day.
20 And God said, “Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the vault of the sky.” 21 So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living thing with which the water teems and that moves about in it, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 22 God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth.” 23 And there was evening, and there was morning—the fifth day.
24 And God said, “Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: the livestock, the creatures that move along the ground, and the wild animals, each according to its kind.” And it was so. 25 God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.
INTERDEPENDENT FROM BEGINNING TO END
In our biblical tradition and ancient Near Eastern traditions that influenced the biblical texts, any large body of water was symbolic of chaos. "In the beginning…the earth was a formless void” of the “deep waters” in the original Hebrew is tohu wabohu, in effect, "formlessness and normlessness." Chaos.
Chaos in any form stirs fear, anxiety, and defensiveness. Chaos can make us feel unmoored, alone, swamped, and without strength to withstand the flood.
God's first recorded act is to address the "formlessness and normlessness" that can evoke such reactions.
God reveals what can emerge out of chaos: order in which all things have a valued place, harmony in which difference makes the song richer and more interesting, a world in which all belong and have a role to play, a world in which God continues to recreate, speak, and breathe life into our lives, raising us up again and again.