I feel that many times we end up neglecting the text of Genesis 1. Maybe because we see this text only as a “Check-list” of what has been done.
I heard a word these days that marked me a lot and I want to invite you to see more deeply the first verses of the bible just as my eyes were opened too.
Something is created for something to be formed
Verse 1 of chapter 1 says, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth“ A little later, in verse 7 of verse 2, we see the following passage: “Then the Lord God formed a man“.
Did you notice any difference between the two sections? In the first, the term “Created“ is used and then the term “Formed“. And it’s not by chance.
You cannot create anything from what already exists. When something already exists, we just give that matter a different form. A chair, for example, is not created, it is formed through wood, which already exists. The earth was created, because there was no previous matter for it to form.
There was no governorship before Joseph, only Pharaoh existed. God prepared a place for Joseph, a created place where nothing existed.
There’s potential!
We must not despise “nothingness”, because that is where God creates. But also don’t belittle something that already exists, for it was out of the dust on which we walk that God formed man.
About this, there is another different detail in one of the first texts as well. In creating the earth the Lord says “Let there be light“ in verse 3. But in verse 11 He says, “Let the land produce vegetation“.
In verse 11 He did not form or create or ordain to arise, but commanded the earth to produce. In that moment we can understand something very profound that changed my view on many things.
He did not say “Let there be vegetation” for He had already poured into the earth a production potential. He is not going to bring into your life something that He has already given you. He will not bring forth the ability to produce and form that you have already received.
Don’t focus on lack
Just because the earth was formless and empty, as verse 1 says, doesn’t mean there wasn’t a potential for it to be created.
The condition of emptiness or lack in us is not definitive. God will always use what is in us to supply and multiply, not what is lacking. Hence, in Mark 6:38, He asked how many loaves and fish the disciples already had, not how many were needed to feed the multitude.
God always potentiates what has already been placed within us. When we are grateful for what we have, He brings what we lack. What the widow called a little, the Lord called a beginning. Anyone who looked at the earth at that time would never find the potential for such a complex creation to exist on it.
You are not stone, you are ground!
God did not form the man of precious stones because they have no power to produce, they alone are the final product. He formed you from the dust of the earth because the earth has a production potential. He is not concerned with your comfort in being a beautiful, shiny stone, He wants you to be fertile soil, something that has the potential for growth in it.
Anyone who sees you now may not imagine the power you have within you through Him to reach high places. Potential is unspent energy. The raw material of the miracle you are waiting for may be inside you, just waiting to be formed. You have potential, learn from God how to put it out!
