The Reason For The Title.

I'm likely going to get a tattoo to inaugurate this season of my life. The concept for my Tat has also inspired this blog. It goes like this:

I'm embarking upon a journey consisting of, but not limited to the following: the giving away of everything I own, the forfeiture of all plans, comforts, and accoutrements of the typical domestic life, and the setting off into the vastness of the created world to encounter God and love His people.

So, my tattoo concept is derived from the story of Creation in Genesis 1:2, which says "The earth was formless and empty, and darkness covered the deep waters. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters."

The original Hebrew for "formless and empty" is the phrase "tohu va vohu" or actually,

which directly translated is "utter chaos." It was practically a whimsical term, dismissing the subject as incoherent and lacking intrinsic value.

I visited Limpopo, S.
Africa with my family a decade ago, and we took a photo on an ancient baobab tree.

This thing's one of the biggest in the world, 152 ft around, and over 6,000 yrs old.

SOOOOO, my idea is some artistic rendering of this tree growing out of a "void," of sorts, perhaps a trash heap or some visual depiction of dust and ashes, incorporating the Hebrew phrase. It's supposed to represent how I am, and collectively humanity is, just a bunch of rubbish swirling in tumultuous blunder, but that this is the very material that God uses to put together His masterpiece: beautiful Creation as a whole.

So that's it, that's that, this is it, etc. A bookend. The one on the left. Hopefully the bookshelf is stout enough to support whatever tohu va vohu it will collect between now and the next bookend.

Cheers, and we'll see you along the way.