Held Between the Waters

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“And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.”Genesis 1:6, KJV

We discovered a beach in the middle of Utah.

A place I never would have gone looking for a beach.

And yet, there it was.

Beautiful sand. Water so blue it hardly looked real. Mountains rising around it as if they were standing guard over something that did not belong there.

I sat at the edge of the water, watching it move against the shore, and a verse kept returning to my heart.

“Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.”

God separated the waters.

Water from water.

And as I sat there, surrounded by beauty that felt almost misplaced, God reminded me of something that is easy to forget:

His creation is constantly preaching to us about His character.

We are surrounded by reminders of Him.

The mountains preach His strength.

The stars preach His greatness.

The changing seasons preach His faithfulness.

And the waters preach something else.

They preach chaos.

Throughout Scripture, water is often associated with chaos, destruction, danger, and forces beyond human control.

Think about it.

The flood.

The Red Sea.

The raging sea that terrified experienced fishermen.

Jonah being swallowed by the depths.

The disciples crying out in fear as waves crashed around their boat.

The waters were not something ancient people took lightly. The sea was powerful. Unpredictable. Uncontrollable.

You could not negotiate with it.

You could not overpower it.

You could not build enough walls to guarantee it would never reach you.

And yet, in the opening pages of Scripture, before man ever builds a city, invents a weapon, or learns how to protect himself, God speaks to the waters.

He separates them.

He establishes boundaries.

He creates a place in the middle of chaos where life can exist.

That is what struck me as I sat beside that water in Utah.

God separated chaos from chaos and made a place for life in between.

There is no reality in which I am truly safe on this earth. That may sound dark, but it is simply true. This world is fragile.

Our bodies are fragile.

The ground beneath our feet moves.

The weather changes.

People make decisions we cannot control.

Accidents happen.

Illness comes.

Evil exists.

Death waits for every one of us.

We live surrounded by things capable of destroying us. We are, in many ways, the most unlikely creatures to survive.

We do not have claws.

We do not have armor.

We cannot outrun most predators.

We cannot survive extreme temperatures without building shelter.

We need food. Water. Air. Community.

We can be taken down by things so small we cannot even see them.

And yet...

Here we are.

Day after day.

Breathing.

Building.

Loving.

Raising children.

Planting gardens.

Creating.

Dreaming.

Worshipping.

Expanding.

According to the will and mercy of God, we wake up again. The truth is that we are not held together by our intelligence, our preparedness, our money, our homes, or our ability to control our circumstances. We can prepare. We should be wise. We should make good decisions.

But none of those things are ultimately what hold us.

God does.

Just as He holds the waters. The image in Genesis becomes even more profound when you think about where humanity lives. We live between the waters. Between forces greater than ourselves. Between the chaos beneath and the chaos above. And yet God created a space where life could flourish. He gave boundaries to the things that could destroy us. Not because they are weak. But because He is greater. Job records God speaking about the sea:

“Who shut up the sea with doors, when it brake forth, as if it had issued out of the womb?... And said, Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further: and here shall thy proud waves be stayed?”Job 38:8, 11

I love that image.

The waves are proud.

They rise.

They crash.

They roar.

They appear unstoppable.

And God says:

“Here. No further.”

There are things in our lives that feel exactly like those waves.

Fear.

Pain.

Evil.

Loss.

Financial uncertainty.

Sickness.

The unknown.

Things we cannot control and certainly cannot overpower. They rise around us, and from our limited human perspective, they can look unstoppable. But they are not outside of God's command. The chaos has boundaries.

Yet, what amazes me most is what God did next. He did not just create humanity and tell us to survive. He gave us a mandate.

“Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it.”Genesis 1:28

The weakest creatures were given the highest assignment. Think about that. God placed vulnerable, fragile, mortal human beings into a world filled with danger and said:

Expand.

Multiply.

Cultivate.

Build.

Create.

Rule.

Carry My image into the world.

And for those of us who belong to Christ, that mandate becomes even greater.

Jesus tells His followers to go. To make disciples. To carry the Gospel. To expand the Kingdom of God.

We are surrounded by death, chaos, destruction, pain, fear, and evil principalities beyond what we can see. And still God says:

Go.

Not because we are strong enough.

But because He is.

The more I thought about Genesis, the more my mind returned to Jesus.

Jesus is the creation story in human form. In Genesis, God speaks into chaos and brings order. Jesus steps into a chaotic world and brings the Kingdom of God. In Genesis, God creates light in darkness.

Jesus declares:

“I am the light of the world.”

In Genesis, God separates the waters and creates a place for life.

Jesus steps into the waters Himself.

He is baptized in the Jordan.

He walks upon the sea.

He saves Peter when Peter begins sinking beneath the waves.

He sleeps peacefully in the middle of a storm.

And when His disciples wake Him in terror, Jesus stands and speaks to the chaos.

“Peace, be still.”

And the wind obeys Him.

The waves obey Him.

The chaos recognizes its Creator.

That is who Jesus is.

He is not simply a good teacher who came to tell us how to live better lives. He is the One who stands over creation and commands it. And somehow, unbelievably, He invites us to follow Him into the chaos.

Following Jesus does not mean finding a place where chaos cannot reach us. I think sometimes we spend much of our lives trying to build one.

We want enough money so nothing can happen.

Enough security so nothing can be taken.

Enough knowledge so nothing can surprise us.

Enough control so nothing can hurt us.

But that place does not exist on this side of eternity. We were never promised a life without storms. We were promised a Savior who stands in them. The disciples were not safe because there was no storm. They were safe because Jesus was in the boat.

Our goal is not to escape every difficult thing. Our goal is to learn to walk with the One who commands the waters. To walk into darkness carrying light. To walk into chaos carrying peace. To walk into a dying world carrying the message of life. To expand the Kingdom, not because we are fearless, but because our Defender is greater than what we fear.

Every time I stand before mighty waters, I am reminded of His character. I am reminded that I am small. That I am fragile. That I cannot control much of anything. And yet, that realization brings peace.

Because if my safety depended entirely upon my ability to protect myself, I would have every reason to be afraid.

But it doesn't.

He holds me.

The same God who tells the ocean where to stop.

The same God who separated waters from waters.

The same God who created a place for life in the middle of chaos.

The same God who stepped into the chaos of humanity in the person of Jesus Christ.

He holds me.

And He holds you.

We are surrounded by things capable of destroying us.

Yet we are still here.

Breathing.

Building.

Loving.

Creating.

Teaching our children.

Carrying the image of God into a broken world.

Expanding His Kingdom.

The weakest creatures were given the highest mandate. So that when we succeed, when we endure, when we walk through waters that should have swallowed us, we know it was never because we were strong enough. It was because He held us.

And so, I sat beside that unexpected beach in the middle of Utah. Mountains surrounding me and blue water before me. And Genesis echoing in my heart.

He separated the waters.

He made a place for life in the middle of chaos. And He is still doing what He has always done. Holding back the waters. Setting boundaries around the waves. Creating life where life should not be possible. And sending His fragile human children into the world with an impossible assignment.

Go.

Expand.

Be fruitful.

Carry My Kingdom.

Not because you are strong.

But because "I AM".

And that is enough.