רִחֵף : order out of chaos.

Five months ago I was sitting on this Costa Rican pier, talking to Jesus.

it was an absolutely beautiful day, but I had no peace. In fact, during the 6 weeks I spent in Costa Rica, most of my days were spent amidst an incredible amount of confusion, fear, and sadness. it was a very dark time, and I felt completely and utterly lost.

In the midst of my confusion, I wandered through Quepos and made my way to the pier, where I promptly sat down, fell apart, and cried out to God. from the deepest parts of me I cried out to Him, asking for help. I had no idea what kind of help I wanted or needed, but I knew I needed something. So there I sat, praying praying praying, Jesus, help me.

and after a very long wait, He gave me the most beautiful vision.

I looked up into the sky in the midst of my prayer, and I saw 3 huge birds flying over my head. One of them, directly overtop of me, was hovering – not moving through the sky, but floating motionless in one spot, using its powerful wings to keep itself directly overhead.

and my mind immediately returned to Israel. I had seen this image before. sitting on a tiny hill in the middle of a desert, overlooking an ancient Egyptian slave camp a mile from Egypt’s border, I had watched a bird hover just like that. It had turned itself in circles without moving from its perch in the sky, floating above our little wandering group as we sat below it, sweating from the heat of the desert.

and RVL’s words: “LOOK. that bird. that’s the kind of bird that the spirit of God is compared to when it hovers over the waters of the deep, creating the world. RICHEF. to hover.”

like the spirit of God.

hovering over the waters of darkness and nothingness, floating over the void.

bringing order out of all that messy chaos.

the spirit, hovering over the blackness, holding within itself a picture and a plan of something beautiful and purposeful and full of Godly design.

RICHEF. רִחֵף. to hover. a sign of God making something new.

and as my mind returned to the Costa Rican pier where I waited for God’s help, the tension in my spirit and my body BROKE, and I began to see my situation from the perspective of God.

my chaos.

my darkness.

my confusion.

all of me, a mess.

and absolutely no reason to fear.

because all of that disorder is just what God is known to work with.

He is the gracious creator God who hovers over our turmoil and out of it calls light. beauty. order. and love.

He takes all this nothing and forms it, speaks to it, molds it into something that is full of grace, inscribed and sealed with His Name.

He hovers. He creates. He call forth. He makes new.

Always.

we serve a God who takes pleasure in RENEWAL.

we serve a God of RICHEF.

let us always remember.

let us always persevere.

let us always hope.

amen.