Beautiful Words Blog | Only God Makes Something Out of Nothing by John Moropoulos | Gateway Christian Fellowship

4.16.2026

Text: Genesis 1.2

Like many people, my wife and I watched with keen interest as the Artemis 2 returned to Earth.  It is always so amazing to hear the numbers and try to comprehend them.  How far from Earth were they? 252,756 miles.  I have absolutely no frame of reference for that kind of distance.  How fast was it going when it re-entered Earth’s atmosphere? 25,000 mph.  No point of reference at all, and I’ve ridden some really fast motorcycles. Maximum temperature of the outside of the craft? Around 3,000 Fahrenheit.  I know that’s really hot, but how hot? No idea really.

So it was fascinating to hear the reactions of the crew members upon their return. I took special note of the comments of Mission Specialist Christina Koch. She described the “nothingness of space.”  She spoke of the blackness of space, a nothingness in which the earth is suspended. 

Of all the numbers that the Artemis 2 involved, the one that strikes me as the most amazing, the hardest to understand, and the most thought-provoking is zero.  Nothing.  A perfect vacuum.

On paper, it’s pretty easy.  It’s the spot on the number line between one and negative one, provided we are sticking to whole numbers. On the thermometer, it’s similar to the number line except it has more reality to it.  “It’s zero outside.”  That makes sense.  Except of course “below zero.”  Now what is that really supposed to mean?

I’ve heard that there is an “absolute zero.”  It’s -459.67 Fahrenheit.  Of course, it’s really only a theory as scientists have never been able to reach it.  I understand that it’s the point at which molecular activity stops.  That I can understand.  Tell a teenager to clean their room.  

But nothing. Really nothing. The ancient Greeks didn’t even have a number to indicate zero.  So how does one even represent nothing, if it’s nothing?

Scripture describes it this way.  

The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep

Genesis 1.2

Formless and void.  The Hebrew word translated “formless” means just that.  Not having form or shape.  But it is also translated as “vain.” 1 Samuel 12.21 NASB.  That I can grasp.  The word translated void-it is sometimes translated as “emptiness.”  Shapeless, empty, void.  

I suppose only One Who has experienced it can really know it.  Only the One Who looked upon it and spoke form, shape, order, light, and ultimately life can understand existence without it.  We can’t comprehend it, existence in nothingness, not only because we have not experienced it but also because we were never intended to. We were not designed to.  The very existence of our senses makes that clear.

What if the person who rejects God is also found to be rejecting everything He created?  What if the person who is sentenced to eternity without Him also enters into an eternity without anything?  Just a vast darkness.  The thought is truly terrifying.

Thank be to the One Who has called us out of darkness into His marvelous light (1 Peter 2.9).   Thanks be to the One Who has called us to spend eternity with the One Who is truly something, Who made all things, and in His great love, made us.  He made the earth for us and then said it was good.  This is One Whom we can truly trust with eternity.