Reason is there amid the chaos

Today, chaos abounds.
On the international front, there are wars and rumors of wars. Hatred, based on religious as well as political beliefs, permeates every society and pits societies against societies and cultures against cultures.
On the home front (the United States), chaos is at an all-time high. These states are no longer "united." Hatred permeates the political arena, the educational arena and the institutionalized church. This hatred has bred racism, sexism and classism. People are still discriminated against because of the color of their skin and/or their gender and/or their economic status -- even in the church.
The church leads this country in segregation in the 21st century. Just walk into any local church on Sunday morning. For the most part (approximately 95 percent), Sunday morning -- from 8 a.m. until 1 p.m. -- is the most blatantly segregated day and time-frame of the entire week.
Seeking reason
The hip-hop rappers belt out lyrics that lament and blame God for the evils of this world. Many want to know why a God who is proclaimed as the author and initiator of unconditional love allows such evil travesties to grip the whole of this earth. The world has gone amok, and the young people are asking the hard questions of God and the church. And we, who are part of the church, are not giving them satisfactory answers. Those of us who "dawn" the churches every Sunday morning have fallen short of giving adequate answers and relief because we, too, are part of the problem.
The world as we know it, today and in times past, was not always this chaotic. In the beginning, the word of God says, God took an empty and formless Earth and shaped it into an endlessly beautiful masterpiece (Genesis 1). God gave shape and form to the Earth in order to prepare it for his created "likeness." The Bible tells us that God created the fullness of the heavens and the Earth in six days, and on the seventh day he rested. (The significance of the word "day" has been debated over and over again by theologians and scholars. However, for the purposes of this article, the length of "day" is not important.)
God created six and one-half days of life so that his most beloved creation, humankind, could dwell upon the Earth. The Earth, which God had formed and shaped, in the beginning was full of peace, serenity and tranquillity. In the beginning, God made human kind in his image and after his likeness. What a wonderful and phenomenal gesture and act of love on God's part! But what does this mean?
Finding hope
Being made in the image of God means that humankind is a representation of God. In Genesis 1:26, God says, "... and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground." In other words, humankind has been crowned with glory and honor and given sovereignty over Earth -- as a servant of God and an appointed steward over his creation (Psalm 8:4-8). Being made after his likeness, the inner nature of human beings reflects the inner nature of God. God created humankind as personal beings and has revealed himself to us as a personal being.
In the beginning, God created a beautiful planet on which to house his most precious created beings -- humankind. He created a perfect environment and placed the first human beings in his paradise -- the Garden of Eden. So what happened to this perfect situation?
The answer is in the biblical story of "Adam and Eve," which begins in Genesis 3. The important thing here is that God did not create the chaotic mess in which we find ourselves and our world today. God does not change. He loves us just as much today as he did thousands and thousands of years ago. He wants each and every one of his created beings to reconcile (turn back) to him. This is why he sent his only son, Jesus Christ -- that you and I may be reconciled to him and in turn receive eternal life right this moment, entering into a new kingdom, the Kingdom of God.
XEdna Payne is an ordained minister and an evangelist/prophetess. A Youngstown native, she has master's degrees from Fuller Theological Seminary in Evangelism and in Christian Formation & amp; Discipleship.