Words Creating Space

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

3 And God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light. 4 God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light ‘day,’ and the darkness he called ‘night.’ And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.” Genesis 1:1-5 NIV

How do you feel when the power goes out and you go from abundant light to being unexpectedly plunged into total darkness?  You can’t even see your hand in front of you!  And the size of the room doesn’t matter—you are afraid to move, to take even one step.  That’s a place where a lot of us reside, at least some of the time, a place of darkness and fear that squelches growth, with no room to move, a place of isolation. 

Scripture paints a picture of a chaotic nothingness that existed on earth before God’s first spoken word. His words “Let there be light” initiated a chain reaction that would allow all things to grow and flourish. The act of creation was an act of love directed outwardly, a process through which God shared Himself while declaring each element of creation Good.

John 1:1-5 places Jesus in the midst of the Creation narrative, showing that He was part not only of creating physical light but is light to us spiritually. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”  NIV Jesus is the conduit to God’s goodness towards us and is pure light. His role was to express and complete God’s good intentions towards the world. God desired to complete His people through relationship with them and through this relationship, His people would reflect His glory to the world. Jesus makes this relationship possible, but Jesus didn’t just come onto the scene after the first sin was committed, He was there all the time and was before all time.

Through Words Creating Space, we desire to provide a forum that expresses the depths of the goodness of God. This goodness preceded all of creation and was the driving force behind God’s first spoken word. As we grow in the realization of just how high, long, deep and wide God’s love is for us, we are able to approach God in the truth of Who He is and in the process come to know our true selves.

Our inspiration verse behind all of our writing is Psalm 18:19, which states: “He brought me out to a spacious place; He rescued me because He delighted in me” (HCSB).  This spacious place is a place of God’s light, a place of goodness and abundance, where we can thrive and flourish in His presence, unlike the dark, closeted places we often inhabit. It is through this act of bringing out that we are rescued.  The operative word “rescue” in the Greek and Hebrew means “draw off or out, withdraw” and “deliver” (biblehub.com).  Isn’t the whole idea of rescue about getting one out of danger with tremendous effort required on the part of the rescuer?  Why does God the rescuer even want to go to the trouble (again and again) for us?  The reason is found in the last phrase of the verse, “because He delighted in me”.  Yes, we have a God, Who, for reasons we as humans cannot fathom, delights in you and in me. Dictionary.com defines delight as “to give great pleasure, satisfaction, or enjoyment”. We have a rescuer Who just keeps stepping up solely because it is His will and He takes pleasure in it! 

Love in the person of Jesus came into the world, calling us “out of this darkness into His marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9 HCSB).  We do not need to linger in those dark places any longer!  Jesus can and will deliver us, if we let Him.  Which place would you rather be? 

Embrace the miracle of Christ’s coming in this season of Advent and boldly claim His promises by running toward His Light!  After all, you are His deLIGHT!