April 2005

Something from Nothing

Have you heard a story something like this?

A scientist says to God, “We’ve found a way to improve on mankind. In fact we’re now better at the whole process than you. From a scrap of dirt we too can create a man but not just an ordinary man like you did. A genetically enhanced man: healthy, strong, smart, tall with handsome, chiseled features and without baldness, bad breath, genetic disease, or any other abnormalities.”

“So how about you and me have a man creating contest,” God says.

“Fine. You’re on!” replies the scientist. “Here’s your pile of dirt and here’s mine.”

“Now wait a minute,” says God. “You make your own dirt.”

We can never forget that humans can’t create something from nothing at all. We will always need something to create something else. As Spring comes upon us and nature begins to bloom with rich life, I am reminded of rebirth. Life bursts on to the seen and creation does spring forth. In all of nature new life can begin, yet it always begins from something to start with. Only God can create something out of nothing and can do it any time He wants. He’s always been doing it. He will continue to do it. He’s doing it right now.

I am not referring to merely physical matter. What is true for it is just as true for the internal matters of our hearts---The unseen somethings. The intangible workings and dark places we don’t even understand.

Jeremiah 17:9 says, “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” This prophet dramatically refers to the heart as a desperate place.

The inherent maladies and contradictions of our hearts make its inner workings selfish, misguided and flawed. These wicked “somethings” then cannot be made fresh with an extreme makeover like a sagging, ugly face gets a facelift and rhinoplasty. Even wondrous plastic surgery only makes something from something. God is in the business of making something from nothing. Bad cannot manufacture good. Our goodness comes from the source, God.

2 Corinithians 5:17 “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!”

Never be discouraged regarding your wounded or sinful heart. God doesn’t just give us a renovation. He starts completely new and makes a original creation, (despite our weaknesses.)

Ephesians 2:8-10 “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is a gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boost. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”

God is in the habit of creation. He seems to simply delight in it. Our hearts are refined in the process of life to be creations the Bible says He literally boasts of. His is proud of the handiwork. He is proud of us, His children. His incredible love for us is evident in that He takes our souls in these jars of clay and purifies them for goodness sake. As vessels with precious cargo we are created anew for eternity. He takes the unusable nothings we have and makes something beautiful.

God is always willing to make something from nothing, so give Him every nothing you have. There won’t be anything He can’t make into something good.

Lisa DeLay

©2005