Beauty In Chaos
For the last several weeks, BibleProject has been exploring the concept of chaos in the Bible. Chaos, also known as disorder, confusion, and unpredictability, is represented in Scripture by several things, like the ocean, the wilderness, wild animals, and even dragons! Meditating on chaos, my imagination goes wild.
Much of my life can be described as an attempt to bring order to chaos. Despite schedules and rules, my family of six operates less like clockwork and more like a hive of bees—busy, all working roughly toward the same goal, and lots of buzzing and moving in circles. My job involves the management of about 15 separate business entities, also known as herding cats. Every day I make lists, put files into folders, organize meetings, and summarize a hundred random ideas into concise sentences. Yet disarray still weighs me down, because inevitably something (usually many things) catches me off guard and leaves my head spinning.
Remember your childhood, looking for predictability in everything? What happens when I throw a ball up in the air? What happens if I step on an anthill? What happens if I stay out past my curfew? What happens if I study hard in school? Easy answers to all of these questions.
But think about how little is truly predictable. The surprise gust of wind that makes the ball miss your hand. The chaotic movement of ants immediately after stepping on their mound. The tear tracks on your mother’s face when she tells you you’re grounded for missing curfew. The job market that suddenly dries up around the time you collect your college degree.
Despite what we learned in school, Newton’s laws of physics don’t really govern much. Since the early 20th century, scientists have been proving the unpredictability of the universe through quantum mechanics and chaos theory. (My biggest regret in college: taking Piano 101 instead of Chaos Theory 410) From the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle to the Butterfly Effect, we now know that we really don’t know anything we think we know.
And like a bee landing on a flower, here is where I draw near to God’s Word. The unknowable universe is known fully by our omniscient creator. Chaos has no power over the Lord. Recalling the examples above, Jesus commands the wind. He decrees the movements of insects. He wipes away tears. The job market, money, and everything in the world belong to God.
Not only is God master over chaos, but he often turns it into beauty. The chaotic ocean contains the beautiful songs of sea mammals. The disorderly wilderness worships the Lord. Wild animals lie in peace before the Lord. And the dragon has been defeated.
Next time you watch the clouds roll by or the twinkling night sky, meditate on God’s control of a chaotic universe. If you feel overwhelmed by life’s surprise punches, remember the gentle hand of Jesus calling you to the way of the cross. We are loved by the one who breathed order out of the chaos and formed us from the dust of the wilderness.
