No one knows how long it was before things got started. On this both science and theology agree. Modern physics maintains that time did not actually exist before the “Big Bang.” You can’t really ask “What was happening before then?” if there was no such thing as “before.” But the Book of Genesis leaves the question open as well. “In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters” (Genesis 1:1). How long did that go on? Was it a brief prelude to the work of Creation, or did God let it wait a while before getting started? It seems like an open question, scientifically or theologically speaking.
But maybe this should not surprise us. So often in life, the real work begins before anyone can see it. A seed feels the warmth of the earth and reaches out for the sunlight above.
Preparations for all kinds of good things take place below the surface, out of sight. It isn’t obvious what’s going on, or when we’ll get to see the results of all that hard work.
It’s plenty obvious that we’ve started work on Phase One here at the church, but mostly it looks like all we’ve done is made a mess! There’s plenty of dirt to show for our efforts, but not much else. The truth is that we’ve learned a lot and are right on track. The whole area seems much larger than we thought. You can actually see the church now from Crenshaw. And we passed our grading inspection on schedule. And as soon as we move a couple of water and electrical lines we’ll be making visible progress again.
There’s a similar story to tell with the launch of a new web site for the church. The address is still the same (www.rhumc.org) but the look is fresh, inviting and helpful. The work of designing and building the new site has been going on for more than a year, but until it went live, no one could tell. People kept telling us that our web site was out of date (which was true). At last the long wait is over, and we invite you to check it out. There are still some things to be finished, and some kinks to work out, but that was true in Creation as well. It isn’t finished either!
No one knows how long it was before things got started. On this both science and theology agree. Modern physics maintains that time did not actually exist before the “Big Bang.” You can’t really ask “What was happening before then?” if there was no such thing as “before.” But the Book of Genesis leaves the question open as well. “In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters” (Genesis 1:1). How long did that go on? Was it a brief prelude to the work of Creation, or did God let it wait a while before getting started? It seems like an open question, scientifically or theologically speaking.
Important things happen in the darkness, out of sight, beyond our view. How long does it take before we get to see the results? We can’t always say. When the Bible says “In the beginning…” we don’t know how long the wind blew over the waters before those first fateful words were spoken – “Let there be light.”
It was like that when Creation was born. God worked in the dark and brought forth life. It was like that in the tomb as well. In the midst of darkness and despair, the grace of God was doing its work. No one who looked at the scene would have guessed what was happening. Two of the central stories of our faith took place when no one could see. Perhaps we should not be surprised when other good and important events in our lives come out of darkness as well.
Grace and peace,
