How many times have you read Genesis 1 and 2? Most of us have quoted “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” multiple times in our lives. It is the first verse of the bible. We know it by heart.
I have recently gone back to those two chapters. I needed to get my bearings again. My compass seemed to be spinning on the dial. Actually, I am being genuine with you. It was my phone compass and I didn’t know you had to twirl it around to enable it to get pointing north. My faith foundation felt like my phone app. I couldn’t find true north. My faith was spinning with each worry or each distraction that came my way. I was walking in a circle. I kept getting scratched by the same prickly grape vine. I am being real here again. I was in an unknown town and decided to play Dora the Explorer on my exercise walk and I got lost. I got lost in a grape vineyard. Grape vines are very thorny. I didn’t want to tell my husband I was lost because I had assured him I would be fine on this walk before I left him. I decided to call the hotel and ask for directions. They told me I was on the right path; I just needed to keep heading north and then they hung up on me. Good directions if I knew which way was north. Oh yeah, I thought, I got my handy dandy compass app. Pushed on it. The dial just sort of spun and then nothing. The thing with phone apps, you gotta know how to operate them and I was suffering from operator error.
I should give you the happy ending here because obviously I am not still lost. I grit my teeth, called my husband, and arrived back at the hotel an hour later with cuts up and down my shins from the same grape vine I kept circling for the past hour.
I tell this story to get to my point. My life had begun reflecting that dreadful walk. I was circling the same prickly grape vine of worries and doubt. My faith compass was spinning and then nothing. Instead of my shins getting scraped and cut, my heart and my mind were being ripped open. I needed a functional compass that would head me true north. My heart was pointing me towards God because I could feel His magnetic pull.
I opened up my bible and started at the most logical place, page 1. Genesis 1:1-2 “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and empty, and darkness covered the deep waters. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.” Period. Stop. This is my beginning. This is your beginning. If we want to get anything else straightened out in our lives we have to get this straight. We have to know where we came from. God. It is God. Every answer to your questions is God. It all began with God. Do you wanna find true north? Ask God. Do you wanna stop circling? Start with God. Is darkness covering your deep waters? Do you sometimes feel those waters rising above you head? Trust this truth. The Spirit of God is hovering over the surface of our waters also.
God, Ancient of Days, Yahweh, the One who always was, the One who always is, and the One who always will be was there before it all began. His Son was also there. Jesus Christ, Son of God, is the very Word of God. “In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. He existed in the beginning with God. God created everything through him, and nothing was created except through him. The Word gave life to everything that was created, and his life brought light to everyone. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness can never extinguish it.” John 1:1-5 NLT. Ties Genesis 1:1-2 together quite nicely don’t you think?
Now, don’t you want to read on in these two chapters even though you have read them once or twice before? Go ahead. Do it. Join me. Try playing the Overture of the Phantom of the Opera by Andrew Lloyd Webber while reading chapters 1 and 2. It brings out the drama of creation. God speaks formless, empty, and darkness into being. Can’t you just hear the thunder, the power, and the authority in God’s voice as He speaks nothing into something. Now listen, be still and know He is God. Can you hear His thunder? God speaks life and order into our chaos. Are you empty? God speaks fullness into our emptiness. Can you begin to see your darkness breaking? Jesus’ life is going to shed light into our darkness and guess what? The darkness can’t extinguish it! Shout HALLELUJAH, PRAISE THE LORD, AND PASS THE BISCUITS because nothing is too dark that Jesus’ light cannot penetrate through. Are you able to take a deep breath as you rise above your waters? The Spirit of God is hovering over us, immersing in us, and empowering us to rise above our waters.
So I finish typing this article while on my feet, stomping and pushing back my darkness in Jesus name!!!