GOD BREATHES ORDER INTO OUR CHAOS

I have been thinking about chaos in life and about Jesus.  Genesis 1:1 – 2:3 speaks to me.  It portrays our cosmos as a blend of chaos and order.

There are 7 “creation” accounts in the Bible, but the initial one (Gen 1:1 – 2:3) sets the foundation for life with its theology.  The Israelites, as rather newcomers in the world of the ancient Near East, adopted the origin accounts of its cultural environment, but demythologized them and presented a different world view.  (So, too, Christianity adopted from its environment, such as the winter solstice for Christmas.)  And, most ancient creation accounts start with chaos.*  That makes sense.  The maintenance of life as we know it – not God’s existence – consists of a struggle against chaos.  For example, to grow a garden a person must remove rocks, trees, weeds; till the soil; plant the seeds; and, then fight the encroachment of chaos in the forms of more weeds, pests, droughts, etc.  In a loose sense, the origin of religion, as well as science, is rooted in trying to understand and align oneself with the cause of what order there is in this world.

Life as we know it in the present “heaven and earth” requires a delicate blend of chaos: too much chaos and, well, all is chaotic; too much order and all is crystalline.  We want some control over chaos, a pursuit that can be well and good, but our efforts always fall short.  We will all die, in this life, from the apparent triumph of chaos.  That is OK. 

What I learn from the first creation account is that God does not remove chaos, neither the surd physical chaos nor moral chaos.  Rather, God breathes order into chaos.  Christians know that.  Like everyone else we will suffer and die from all the moral evil and surd chaos in this world.  However, in the midst of chaos, we have Jesus who breathes order and peace into our hearts.  (I am reminded of a friend who tells how his atheistic sister who was a physician in a hospital observed Christians die differently, such that she wanted what they had.)  Still, in the snares of chaos, this can be hard to believe.  For example, when the chemicals of the brain go haywire and induce panic, it is almost impossible to believe.  But, the certain hope of the one who knows the resurrected Jesus is that He will not only breathe order into one’s current suffering unto death, but also that He will breathe new life after death.

Lord, I have many friends in the throes of chaos.  Breathe into them and into this suffering world your Presence.  Use me and my fellow Christians as mediators of your breath.  Amen.

*Of course such a beginning leaves evil unexplained, something that has been a source of consternation for systematic theologians.  See post, “Where Did Evil Come From? (8/16/23).