Faith & Insight: From chaos to order

There once was a big messy pile of wood I had in the backyard. One day I took that wood and with some careful planning mixed with hard work I was able to make a fence from that wood. It was not a fancy fence, nor was it particularly the best fence, but it was a fence. Do you suppose if you walked into my backyard and saw that fence the first thing you would think is that the fence just sort of happened? If you had seen the stack of wood prior to the fence being built, would you have thought that it had all the ingredients of a fence and if enough time had passed the fence would form itself? Of course not.

If I hadn’t intervened, that wood would have eventually disintegrated into dust. Things don’t go from disorder to order without something coming along bringing order. Without intervention, things go from order to disorder. God made order of the universe. The Bible says when God created “the earth was formless and empty” (Genesis 1:2). This formless and empty comes from the Hebrew words: “tohuw” and “bohuw,” which basically mean “chaos.” God took chaos and made cosmos. From disorder came order. Just like my pile of fence boards became a fence, after God had created the heavens and the earth he began to bring about order.

God continues to hold his creation together. God hasn’t only caused the world to come into being, he’s also continuing and conserving its existence in the present.

I visited my old house a few months back and I noticed the fence I had built was beginning to tip over. I took a few boards and propped that fence back up. We know why it was bending over, because, as we said earlier, without intervention things go from order to disorder. God is the cause that “all things hold together” (Colossians 1:17). The Bible teaches we (all of creation) are “in his hands” (John 3:35).

Your life may be in chaos today, but it doesn’t have to stay there. It’s going to take some work and some planning, but with the help of God, through his son, you can bring order to your life. You will have to allow God to work in you, but order in your life is possible. You can do all this through him who gives you strength,” (Philippians 4:13).

It’s my prayer you can find peace in your life, but I know it will take you allowing God to intervene. God can take the disorder in your life and bring about order.

Captain Mark Cyr is pastor of The Salvation Army, 661 Colorado St. Carson City, NV 89701. For information, go to carsoncitysalarmy.org.