What Does God Want?

The entire story of salvation is contained in the opening sentence of Genesis:

When God began creating the heavens and the earth,

when the earth was wild and waste

(tohu va-vohu in the Hebrew, meaning "emptiness)

rushing-spirit of God hovering over the face of the waters---

God said: Light, Be! And there was light.

The entire Bible, from beginning to end is the same story, over and over:

From emptiness:  teeming life, fertility

From darkness:  light

From trouble: rejoicing

From ashes: beauty

From chaos: oder and harmony

From mourning: praise and thanksgiving

From death: life

Adam  --  Noah  --  Abraham  --  Joseph  --  Moses  --  Joshua  --  The Judges  -- 

The Kings  --  The Prophets  --  Jesus

All of these represented a new beginning after a world gone dark and chaotic, always leading a new creation/generation out of the grasp of evil.

What does God want?    One biblical passage reads: Consider Abraham when he was called; he was but one [man], but out of him God formed a nation.

God wants us, like the people above, to come out of darkness into His marvelous light, as Peter writes.  He wants us to turn the Valley of Achor (soreness, weeping, lamentation) into springs of flowing water, through His grace and strength.  He wants us to become "new creations" out of which He can draw a new generation of light. 

The choice is ours:  do we remain tohu-va-vohu, wild and waste, or allow the Holy Spirit to make something beautiful out of our chaos? 

                  Light, Be!   and Light was.  And God saw that it was good. 

       "Being good" may not always be an option; praying for the light always is.