The whole world is groaning. I’m sure we all feel it in some manner or another.
I find it interesting as our manmade world spins seemingly out of control, how much I have run to the very creation that groans – asking it to steady me with its simplicity and normalcy.
Something about creation feels nourishing right now.
So I go for walks and leave the podcasts and playlists behind, only desiring to hear wind and birdsongs and the happy beats of my heart.
Netflix is replaced by night skies and patient stars.
My neighborhood has been filled with family bike rides and old couples walking and chirping along as they get their fresh air.
Even the digital landscape is changing. A month ago we were a captive audience to influencers, celebrities, sports arenas and million dollar productions – we willingly consumed whatever they dished out.
But now.
Now we tune into families dancing in their kitchens, kids singing on their driveways, friends sharing new songs, neighbors making bread for the first time. We garden. We cook. We dance. We sing. We pray in hospitals. We pray outside hospitals in cars while our hazard lights flash. We celebrate our medical workers, and honor them for the heroes they are. We understand now, more than ever, the challenges our educators face and the gratitude they deserve for how they’ve completely changed their entire approach to their job on a dime. Parents band together to support one another with long days and homes full of kids.
We are moved by our stories – our real stories.
And as the world tries to tell us its unraveling – it seems something very wonderful is being woven together. We are living. We are standing. We are fighting. We are trusting. We are believing.
And we are creating.
Because that’s how we respond to chaos. We create.
It’s like our DNA is coded with this desire, derived from the one in whose image we were made: The One who creates from chaos.
In Genesis it says that the earth was “without form and void” The meaning in Hebrew is more akin to “chaotic nothingness” – as if you put nothing in a blender and gave it a good swirl. (A fascinating nugget I learned from The Bema Discipleship Podcast.)
This was God’s canvas for the creation of the cosmos.
His nature as a creator and a life-giver involves dipping His genius into the pallet of chaos and nothingness and articulating mountains, oceans, stars, life, love, wonder, and family. Only He knew what beauty could be brought forth from ashes.
So here we walk in the swirl pandemic and contradicting information, of lost jobs and lives, and life unsettled and freedoms stolen.
And the whole earth is groaning for you to remember who you are and whose you are and pick up your paintbrush. Because you were made to create beauty from chaos, just like your Father.
There is nothing small about a new song sung, a new story told, a new business created, a new friend made. And I can’t shake this very deep sense that there are things waiting to be uncovered in this season – gifts, talents, ideas, solutions, inventions, relationships that will bring forth life and healing and hope to those around us.
Compassion and creativity await your voice to tell them how to revive a world in need.
It’s time to rise, sons and daughters, and remember.
There is nothing small about walking in God’s nature.