April 6, 2023

Making Something From Nothing

Television programs usually have a weekly plot—sometimes they are very elaborate or very simple. Shows like “Andy Griffith”, “All in the Family”, “Matlock”, “Judging Amy”, “Touched by an Angel”, and a host of other shows have a story line you could follow as the show progresses. Until “Seinfeld.”

In the 1990s there was a popular television situation comedy starring Jerry Seinfeld appropriately called “Seinfeld” The genius of “Seinfeld” was his show was “the show about “NOTHING”. Jerry Seinfeld starred as a comedian in his comedy series; the premise of this sitcom is Jerry and his three eccentric friends go through everyday life, discussing various quirky situations and their “inimitable take on life’s most mundane moments”. Each week, the cast and writers of Seinfeld faced the arduous task of creating another show about “Nothing”.

Each show comprised a few everyday humdrum events played out by the four starring cast members. The genius of this program is it lasted nine years, was in the top ten, and was at the top of the TV ratings when Jerry Seinfeld called it quits. That’s an impressive record of 9 years and 180 shows about “Nothing”. Considering how impatient and quickly bored many Americans are, it is amazing that “Seinfeld” could last that long. Anyone watching just one episode will realize that “Seinfeld” truly “IS A SHOW ABOUT “NOTHING”“ (this show might finally prove how mindless television has become, but that is for another article).

There is a parallel between this show about “nothing” and we—humans. This “Nothing” show has been continuously running for almost six-thousand years (that”s considerably longer than “Seinfeld’s” short 9 year run) and has no threat of being canceled. Most of us know the story of the creation account. How God took “NOTHING” and created from “NOTHING” the universe in which we live. And God”s greatest creation was man—and He created man and woman from the dust of the earth: And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul (Genesis 2:7). The psalmist summed it up the best when he wrote: When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? (Psalm 8:3-4). The surface answer is dust?

There are many suppositions one can make about the symbolism of dust, dirt, and the ground and why God chose dust as the foundation of man’s physical being. Perhaps God wanted to remind us that we are tied to the earth for our existence. The Apostle Paul says that man was created a terrestrial being (1Co. 15:39-40). The exploration of outer space punctuates this point. The Russians are experts in the study of prolonged weightlessness—having a space station in orbit for decades. Scientists have discovered that long-term weightlessness is harmful to the human body. Astronauts that have experienced even a short duration in the microgravity of space have measurable body changes. NASA scientists have found that weightlessness causes a significant loss of muscle and bone mass, backache, abdominal pain, loss of appetite, change in the cardiovascular system, insomnia, postural hypotension, psychological changes, and immune alterations to list just a few changes. What would several year space journeys do to a human? According to many scientists, a prolonged space flight—like to Mars—would be a one-way ticket for an astronaut. Unfortunately for science fiction enthusiasts, interplanetary space travel is unattainable by humans. Humans are tethered to the earth.

For hundreds if not thousands of years, the words found in Genesis 3:19 have been read during countless funerals: In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. Again God uses the words ground and dust to tell Adam that he is dust. Have you ever paused for a few minutes and contemplated what this means? I am not referring to the decay of the body, but the miracle of our being. Pick up a handful of dust: examine it; throw it up into the air: do whatever you like with it but consider that God took a handful of dirt and created us from it. Paul would refer to this as the weak and base things of the world (1 Corinthians 1:25-29).

Most people have heard of DNA and how science refers to it as the genetic code of the life. DNA contains 46 chromosomes (23 pairs), approximately thirty-thousand genes, and 3 billion chemical base pairs. It is through DNA that human life is created. A man and a woman’s DNA is paired (23 chromosomes from each) and creates another human. What’s astonishing is looking past the marvels of DNA we are all still dirt—“NOTHING”. But maybe dirt isn’t just “Nothing” after all.

The Hebrew writer cites Psalm 8 and adds… Thou madest him [man] a little lower than the angels…thou crownedst him with glory and honour, and didst set him over the works of thy hands…But now we see not yet all things put under him…But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man.

Christians would surely not call the man Jesus “nothing” yet he was created in the same likeness as we are: from dust (Philippians 2:7-8)! Therefore, what does that make us? We are the handiwork of God, His offspring (Psalms 19:1 and Acts 17:28-29). God took “Nothing” and fashioned His greatest creation from it: man and woman. We are created a little lower than the angels FOR THE EXPRESSED PURPOSE of being crowned by God with many crowns and being elevated above the angels by God…Know ye not that we shall judge angels? (1 Corinthians 6:3).

Paul tells the Romans that …The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:…heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us (Romans 8:16-18). Summing it all up—God will reveal this “Nothing” to be really “Something” someday soon.

God”s Peace and Love.