Chaos Does Give Way to Order

We live in a world that is orderly and predictable. Everything goes as planned. There are no surprises. Think of words like balance, unanimity, systematized, normality. All words to describe the planet on which we live and the cosmos that surrounds it. Wait? What? Right now, you are asking – what world do you live in?

Okay, I must be dreaming. Chaos is more like it. How about these words – disorder, confusion, unpredictable. Is there anything in us, under us, around us, above us, that is anything but chaotic? The world in which we live is one chaotic mess, spinning faster and faster, out of control. And not just on the ground, above us as well.

Since my stroke in late 2021, my brain has a difficult time in multi stimulation environments. I have a hard time differentiating between background noises or movements and the ones I am paying attention to. For example, say you are in a restaurant. You most likely are attentive to the person sitting across from you, enjoying conversation with them. And everything else around you are nothing more than in the background. You can hear the noises throughout the space, but it is only noise. The servers moving about, nothing more than background movement to you. The guy playing the piano over in the corner, to you it simply lovely background music to add ambience. However, my brain wants to listen to all the noises and watch all the movements simultaneously. As you can imagine, that creates tremendous chaos within my brain.

So far, you might be thinking – this writing has conveyed a message that is anything but encouraging or hopeful. And you would not be too far away from the truth. This world that we find ourselves living in, on its own, is a big chaotic mess of colors.

Is there hope or should we all just lock ourselves in the basement and ride this train to some bitter end? Let me be to the point. Without God, there is not real hope. With God, who turned chaos into the heavens and the earth, there is tremendous hope, not just for today, but for every moment in time hereafter. The Bible opens this way – “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep” (Genesis 1:1-2a).

God started with a world that was formless and empty, one that was chaotic, and turned that chaos into an orderly creation. With God, disorder and chaos give way to order and peace. In Corinthians, we find these words – “For God is not a God of confusion but of peace” (1 Corinthians 14:33a). Revelation gives us a glimpse into the end of the age which culminates with a new heaven and a new earth (Revelation 21); God restoring order to his creation after sin brought chaos and disorder.

And all throughout the pages of Scripture, from the first creation to this new creation, we find God offering you and me order instead of disorder, calm not chaos, hope rather than despair.

I do art therapy to help my brain interpret and communicate the chaos swirling inside. When I begin painting abstractly, my brain is chaotic, often very chaotic. As I paint, the chaos gradually gives way to order, and when I put the last brush stroke on the canvas, usually my brain is somewhat orderly again. Sometimes it takes two or three paintings, but eventually my brain settles itself.

Will you, today, and every day, put your hope and trust in an orderly God, rather than sink into hopelessness in our world, one filled with so much chaos, disorder, hopelessness? It can be said of God and with God that chaos does give way to order.

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