Order Out of Chaos

Written by Chelsea Jenkins

A few summers ago, I read a book called Glory in the Ordinary. God blessed my heart so much with this book and showed me some really beautiful things that I thought I would share. This book is about finding joy in homemaking and how we can use that to serve the Lord. The biggest enlightenment the Lord blessed my study with was just four simple words.... order out of chaos. It gets you thinking, what does this mean to me as a wife, a mother, and a keeper of my home? Let's dissect this a little bit shall we...

Order- noun, the arrangement of people or things in relation to each other according to a particular sequence, pattern or method.

-verb, an authoritive command, direction or instruction.

Chaos- noun, complete disorder and confusion, the formless matter before creation, no organization or order.

We know that God is the God of order.

1 Corinthians 14:33 (KJV) "For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints."

We can see His order all throughout creation.

Genesis 1:1-3 (KJV) "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the water. And God said, let there be light: and there was light."

God created SOMETHING out of NOTHING. God spoke order. He arranged the creation into a particular sequence, pattern, and method. His authoritive command began all direction and instruction. He continues to do so through all the days of creation until His order is complete. We see all throughout the Old Testament God giving Isreal order with the law, addressing every imaginable thing they could ever face, with exact instruction and direction. It is beautiful to me how He even describes to them the exact colors and designs of tents and the ephods in the books of Exodus and Leviticus.

Moving to the New Testament we are shown Jesus bringing order out of chaos all over in His miracles. Healing the sick, giving the blind sight, lame being made to walk, the broken are made whole. All of these are examples of Jesus removing chaos and bring order to people's lives. Light defeating the darkness. John 1:1-4 confirms and proves this. "In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; with him was not anything made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men."

I love how these four versus cover how God brought order to chaos from the very beginning all the way to Jesus, the light, in flesh, bringing order to chaos. John 1:5 (KJV) "And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not."

One last example before we tie this all into our work in the home...

AUTHORITY of salvation.... Christ shed His blood to give us order out of chaos in our life. Think for a moment about the peace you felt when you repented of your sins, let go of that chaos in your soul, and surrendered your life to Christ. The light that Jesus Christ brough to chase out that darkness that Satan held and kept you in.

John 3:16 (KJV) "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved."

So how does our work in the home connect to all of this? Here are a couple examples I would like to share with you that I really enjoyed in the book I mentioned.

#1. We were made in His image as we are told in Genesis 1:27. We are image bearers of God. When you fold and put away the never-ending mountains of laundry, address the overflowing, never disappearing, full sink of dishes, instructing/directing the constant clean-up of the toy explosion throughout the house... YOU are living and acting in the image of God. Think about how you feel after cleaning a room or the whole house. Does peaceful, lightened, or accomplished come to mind? When those mundane tasks of the home way heavy on you or feel daunting just remember God cares about the mundane things of creation. Our work is a means of loving God as he loves his creation.

#2. Teaching our littles and loving his creation. It is disturbing to me how homemaking and chores have become such a negative mind set. "UUUGGG the laundry, where did these dishes come from. who is sneaking in this house and filling up the trash every 5 minutes???" Sound familiar? As frustrating as these things are, we shouldn't be teaching our littles to be negative about bringing order to chaos before they even have a chance to understand it. Before they can even see and learn how it can glorify God. Titus 2:3-5 tells our wise elder women to teach our younger women and Provers 22:6 tells us to train up our children, so they know what way to go.

#3. Our work serves God and sets the example for those around us. We honor Gods word with our work in the home. With that service we are not only telling our family and those around us that we serve a wonder and gracious God but also showing them that we serve a God who is present and living. This action makes you a part of God's great plan to love His creation.

So feed your family and friends and show them that God meets our physical needs like in Matthew 6:26. Open you home to family and friends and show them God's grace and mercy like in Hebrews 4:16. Finally, when you clean the filth of trash, the stains, and that magically appearing dirt... ponder on how the Lord WILL defeat death and destruction, putting the enemy under His feet like in 1 Corinthians 15.

I pray that this lesson is as much of a blessing to as it was to me.

TO GOD BE THE GLORY!