“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. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.”

You all know what happens next. God begins to form land and sea, sculpting mountains and valleys. All of the Earth, all that our natural eyes can see – and all that is too small for us to see – gets made. God creates… and it is good.

The pinnacle of God’s creation was humanity (a scary and humbling thought!). He made every single one of us; unique, special, diverse, odd, beautiful and bizarre. He creates us with a range of talents and skills; all gifts from our good Father.

God does his best work in spaces. The emptiness, the waters, the deep – that was where the Spirit of God was hovering, ready to unleash galaxies. There was nothing and God made something.

That should be reassuring for us. We generally accept that God doesn’t use perfect people but we still haven’t shaken the idea that we have to be pretty close. We might not be A* star Christians but we should still be getting A’s or at least high B’s. Deep down, we don’t really think that God wants to use the messy parts, the weak parts, the bits where we might not have much to offer.

And yet, that’s exactly where we began and that’s exactly where God wants us: with room in our lives, minds, hearts and hands for him to fill. Clenched hands can’t receive, as the saying goes. God wants our weakness, not just our strengths.

He wants us to acknowledge the space, the emptiness, the gap between where we were and where we would like to be. Because it’s there, over the face of the deep, that the Spirit of God still hovers, waiting and watching, to create again.