Genesis 1 v 1-5 tells us that, “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.”

This is a very understated part of the Bible and yet it contains massive truth and amazing wonder.

If we stop for a second to analyze what it teaches us about the nature and character of God, we can be truly blown away.

God created the heavens and the earth. Just that sentence is fairly awe-inspiring. A cursory glance at Revelation shows us that the courts of heaven are not simple structures. They are elaborate, highly decorative, lusciously-jewelled spaces filled with living creatures of preposterous imagination and stupendous intricacy. Throngs of angels fill the atmosphere with praises and songs and the glory of God shines eternally.

So to make Heaven was not an easy task. And that’s just half the first sentence!

Then God put His mind to earth. In the Amplified version it says that “God prepared, formed and fashioned” it.
In other words, this was not done on a whim. He prepared the spaces, the detail. He thought up every part of every molecule.
It was, as we have read, “formless and empty.” It was also dark and deep. This does not put God off.

Like an eternally optimistic Esate agent He sees something in the emptiness.

I love the way that God looks at something with NO potential and NO form and NO life and NO hope and BOOM!! He turns it on its head and brings shape and purpose and beauty and order and structure and the ability to judge between things.

Look at what the Spirit of God does here. He hovers and broods over the waters. I have imagined Him this week, dreaming of people and places and things as He stares into that water. Thinking up you and me and Venezuala, Nicaragua and Holland. Imagining art work and symphonies; dolphins and flowers; shade and dew, dusk and dawn”¦

God brings something out of NOTHING. No-one else can do that. We can only make something out of something.

I mean, have you ever tried to make a meal out of nothing? There are no ingredients in the cupboard and even if your imagination can conjur them up, without the physical presence of cheese, you cannot make a rare-bit. Not even a small one.
Do you see what I am saying?

I am saying that it does not matter if your life looks as though NOTHING is happening. It does not matter if it appears that you will stay single for ever, or that you will never conceive or that you will never get that recording contract or whatever it is you have cried and prayed and fasted over”¦ why?

Because God can bring SOMETHING out of your NOTHING.

He needs emptiness in order to fill it. He may spill what you have so that He can fill you with what you don’t have.

He may be brooding over your waters right now and thinking and planning for the future. This is a year of opportunity. But He won’t create until He is good and ready.

In the meantime when things are formless and dark and lacking life and meaning, don’t give up. God doesn’t fast track His brooding. He wants to think up your life well.
So let Him.

That, my friends, is what living with grace and truth is all about.