Good morning, friends. This week, we will be spending some time with the first day of creation, the first words of Scripture - the beginnings of all of *this* (motions to everything). Our story begins in the dark. We know this is the day God created light, but let’s stay with the “before” for a bit first. Imagine the utter darkness and chaos for a moment – the “soup of nothingness, a bottomless emptiness, an inky blackness” as The Message has it. What feelings come up in you as you hold that “formless and void” space? Do you find a longing for the light you know is coming? Do you feel a little antsy in the deep darkness? Now imagine God’s Spirit “hovering” over those waters of chaos – almost brooding over it like a mama bird, anticipating the life that would come out of it. How does that image change the feelings around the darkness, for you? Consider for a moment those places in you that feel dark or chaotic or empty. Those places that you have perhaps longed for, prayed for light. Or maybe the places you have never even looked at in yourself - whether unintentionally or intentionally, as a way of protecting yourself from the knowledge that these places are even *in* you. We don’t like chaos. We fear the darkness, within and without. But what if those are the very places God is attending to in you, right now? What if the Spirit is hovering over your chaotic inner deeps, just like in the dawn of our world’s story? What might God be about to bring forth, out of the dark in you? How might God’s creative presence be actively engaged with your depths, even when you’re unaware of it? Can you entrust those places to God’s Spirit, to bring light and life – when it’s time – into the deep, dark places in you? How might you be invited to participate, in speaking light and life into your dark places - into the world's? Are you able to join in that co-creating? Or is your discomfort in the dark too strong? Simply notice your response today, with God. Let it be.

Posted by Jamie Bonilla at 2021-08-30 14:26:03 UTC