When You Find Chaos: Create
Out of chaos God created the heavens and the earth, and we are called to do the same.
“When beginning he, God, created the heavens and the earth, the earth was shapeless and formless and bleakness covered the face of the deep, while the Spirit of God, she, fluttered over the face of the waters” (Genesis 1:1-2 from A Women’s Lectionary for the Whole Church, Vol. W by The Rev. Dr. Wilda C. Gafney, p. 132).
“When God began to create heaven and earth, and the earth then was welter and waste and darkness over the deep and God’s breath hovering over the water, God said, “Let there be light” (Genesis 1:3 from The Hebrew Scriptures: The First Five Books of Moses by Robert Alter, p. 11).
Why bother to create in these days in the U. S. A.? There are more important things to do: calling senators and congresspeople. Protesting. Writing letters. Filing law suits. Writing the news. Reading or watching the news. What does art have to say to us? Yes, if you need a hobby to release stress fine. But don’t act like it’s important.
Based on Genesis 1, I don’t think the God of the Hebrew Scriptures and Christian Bible would agree. Back in the day there was a notion forced onto Genesis 1 that God created out nothing—creation ex nihilo. But that isn’t what Genesis 1:1-2 says. God did not create out of nothing. According to Genesis something was there: tohu wabohu. Dr. Gafney translates this Hebrew phrase as shapeless and formless, and Dr. Alter translates it as welter and waste. The concept behind this phrase is chaos. Something was here, and that something was not good.
What was God’s answer to this chaos? The formless waste? God said: “Let there be light.” There was light, and God saw that it was good. This refrain will echo through the creation story of Genesis 1:1–2:4: God saw that what she created was good. On the sixth day, after the creation of human beings made in God’s image, it is declared: God saw that all of it was very good.
In the midst of the chaos God found, God created the heavens, the earth, and everything in both. Creation brings order out of chaos. Creation is necessary for life. Above all else, first and foremost, God is a creator, and we are made in the image of God. Therefore, one of the most important things we can do to image God in our world is create and bring order, peace, and harmony to the chaos we encounter.
Made in the Image of God
For years in both college and seminary I sat in many a class that talked about what it meant to be made in the image of God, but I don’t remember creating and creativity ever being mentioned in the list. And yet Genesis 1–2 makes it clear the God creates, so when we’re told in 1:26-27: “And God said, ‘Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness, and let them rule the fish of the sea, and the birds of the heaven, and the animals, and the whole earth, and over every creeping creature that creeps upon the earth.’
So God created humankind in God’s own image,
in God’s own image, God created them:
female and male, God created them” (Gafney, p. 132).
If God’s creativity created the entire universe then human beings are meant to create. This is what it means to be made in the image of God. So why are creators and creativity so derided in societies and cultures that have affiliations with Christianity? Why are creators patted on the head and told that’s a nice hobby? Why don’t we believe that creating: writing, painting, baking, cooking, knitting, crocheting, making pottery, sewing, and countless other arts and crafts means we are being God’s image in the world?
Creating New Worlds
These questions have been jangling around in my head since the pandemic when it became OK to be a creator because all of us were stuck at home. Many of us weren’t working, so then it was just fine to spend (waste) our time doing creative stuff like baking, painting, or writing poetry. This is when I figured out part of our power comes in creating. During the pandemic I stopped buying any kind of baked goods. I baked bread, tortillas, pita, naan, cakes, cookies, pies, etc. That was OK because of all of the supply line issues.
This is our power as creators. Our consumerist culture doesn’t want us to create because then we won’t be consuming. We won’t be buying stuff we don’t need. After the pandemic, once supply lines were up and running, we were once again encouraged and coerced to stop being so damn creative and get back to buying stuff (and working so we could buy stuff).
Creators also show that there is a different way to live. The consumer robber barons don’t want us to cast a different vision of what life can look like. And that is precisely why creators must create like God does. We are surrounded by welter and waste: the very institutions that the U. S. A. were built on are being demolished by billionaires who want even more money and power than they already have.
It is up to us to to write, to paint, to knit, to crochet, and to bake a different world into existence. A world where we care about each other instead of dehumanizing and villanizing each other. A world where love is more powerful than indifference. A world where we give each other the benefit of doubt and forgive. A world where mercy is not a bad thing.
This is our calling, creators. We are made in the image of God to envision and co-create a world where the Beatitudes are normal and not something we’ll do when we get to heaven (if then):
Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.
Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.
Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.
Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.
Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 5:3-10, King James Version).
This is why creating is the most important thing we can do: because this is the world we are called to create. For so many people this is a pie in the sky fantasy. They can’t even imagine anything like this coming to past in the here and now. But this is Jesus’ dream for all of creation. This is what he wants to be normal.
It is us up to us creators! We are called to imagine and envision this world. We are called to show people how creating this world is done. So many of us don’t create for ourselves. We bake birthday cakes for family members. We knit socks for friends. We bake bread for soup kitchens. We crochet cute, little hats for babies in the NICU. We paint gorgeous paintings to hang on the walls of hospitals and Alzheimer’s units. We share our art here on Substack to say, “Hey, this is how I’m making a world a better place.”
We are making the world a better place. I am currently knitting scarves for refugees at my church. What are creating to make our world a better place to live?