The Creator created me at the beginning of their work, the first of their acts of long ago. Ages ago I was set up, at the first, before the beginning of the earth. [Then] I was beside The Creator… and I was daily their delight, playing before them always. – Proverbs 8:22–23,30 (NRSVUE, adapted)
Every artist needs inspiration.
It can be intimidating and discouraging when it seems we are starting with nothing: a blank page, blank canvas, no ideas, no clue, no nothing. But, ah! Maybe there’s never really nothing.
We’re taught that God created everything out of nothing, as if the Divine Creator sat there staring into a formless void, darkness covering the face of the deep, while God’s spirit swept like wind over the waters (Genesis 1:2). A formless void, darkness, the deep, spirit, wind, waters? That’s not nothing! It sounds like the raw materials were there, but the inspiration wasn’t. And without inspiration, it feels like you have nothing.
So, before everything else, God created Wisdom, and she became God’s inspiration and delight. Before mountains and shores, land and sky, Wisdom inspired God to create something out of what seemed to be nothing. A master of crafts all her own, Wisdom was a co-creator, playing, dancing, swirling around the face of the deep. Without the delightful playfulness of wisdom, perhaps we’d be left with the formless void.
If you’re sitting and staring at a formless void of nothing, call upon Wisdom. Wisdom inspires us to recognize that there’s never really nothing—we only need her beside us to form it into something.
Divine Wisdom: When I feel like I’ve got nothing, come dance and play with me. Let’s create something together. Amen.
