Turning Chaos into Order

Over lockdown we spent time getting our walled garden ready for guest use. To be honest it needed a lot of work! Besides the usual cutting back and clearing up, there were some more structural jobs involved. The grass lawns had invaded the flower beds, the paths had been overtaken by weeds and a building had fallen apart. We spent many hours re-establishing the boundaries between buildings, lawns, paths and flower beds.

As I re-read the creation account, I noticed for the first time how much separating and organising was involved in the creation of the world as we know it. Starting from the messy chaos described in Genesis 1:2, the first chapter of Genesis tells us how God separated and divided many things to get the earth ready to be filled with life. He divided light from darkness (verse 4). Please don’t ask me how! He divided water in the sky from the water below (verse 6). He separated water from dry land (verse 9).

Of course, this process of separating things, of giving everything its proper place, makes a lot of sense. There would be no point creating land animals if land and sea were all mushed up together. Nor would it do to create bats, bees and birds if earth and sky were all mixed up. And fish need seas to swim in and plants need soil to grow. Everything requires its own habitat. Once things are in their place, and once the earth is a bit more organised, the right conditions for life exist, and creation can flourish as God intended.

There is a great parallel between the organisational processes I told you about in our walled garden, or even more so, in the creation of the world and the healing journey. Our lives can be messy and chaotic, not at all suitable for sustaining abundant life. The first steps towards lasting healing may be the (re-)establishing of some godly order.

We would all like it if God could just make our problems disappear without us having to be particularly involved in the process. But God wants much more than that. He wants to re-order our lives so that sustainable growth can take place. He wants us to flourish abundantly in every possible way.

Perhaps we need to ask Him to help us bring order where there is disorder, to bring some separation and boundaries where right and wrong, holiness and unholiness, truth and falsehood are mixed together in the areas of our lives. Godly boundaries facilitate life. Rightful separation brings the circumstances required for healthy growth.

Prayer: Father thank You for creating the world in such a wonderful way that life can flourish. I ask You that, in my own life, You would help me with separating and re-ordering things, so that I too may blossom. To the glory of Your Name, Amen.