One of the basic things that Christians believe about God is that God created the world out of nothing. This idea, creatio ex nihilo in Latin, is what makes God’s creation different from human creativity. We need supplies to make things. God is able to simply speak and the whole cosmos begins.
God’s ability to do that is why it’s so surprising to me that Jesus’ miracles never involve his creating new stuff out of nothing. When Jesus has a crowd of 5,000 and later of 4,000, he gathers the little bit of food that is available, gives thanks, breaks it and without any real fanfare, scarcity becomes abundance. When they run out of wine at the Wedding in Cana, Jesus asks them to gather pots of water, draw some, and take it to the head steward. Somewhere along the way it becomes wine. What was ordinary and bland has now become a delight.
Even Satan seems to know this fact about Jesus’ work as he tempts Jesus in the wilderness. “Turn these stones into bread,” he says. Why doesn’t Satan tempt Jesus to make bread out of thin air? To simply speak it into being?
Jesus’ ministry starts with the world as it is and uses what’s there to bring abundance and delight and wholeness.
I believe that this simple fact points to something essential about Jesus’ mission. No matter how bad the world or the people in it have gotten, God has refused to give up on his creation. Through the flood, through Israel, and through Jesus the mission has always been one of redemption. The point has never been to scrap the old project and start something new. His mission is to take the stuff of the world that is and infuse it with his glory.
That’s good news for us for two reasons.
First, it means that God can use whatever we have to give. That’s why the widow’s penny is worth so much. God is able to take the mundane stuff of our lives that we manage to offer to him and transform it, transfigure it, and multiply it for his purposes. Whatever you’ve got, God can use it.
Second, it means that God doesn’t need more than what you’ve got. The disciples didn’t need to walk miles to the store to get provisions. The servers at the wedding didn’t need to go raid the local vineyard to get more wine. What they had would do. If you’re giving it your all, and tempted to give more, trust Jesus’ goodness, abundance, and provision, more than you trust what you’ve got to give. Because God can take what you’ve got and do incredible things.
