Creatio Ex Nihilo
by Kimberly Phinney
Blue Ridge Sunset, watercolor by Kimberly Phinney
CREATIO EX NIHILO
There was
nothing but
the warmth of
breath—then clay.
And on the third day,
the Lord said, “Let the dry
ground appear.” So, up from
his hands—crafted like art—
they came. And up from his mind,
teeming with divinity and love, they came:
the hilltops and mountainsides, the gardens and
sacredness they held—all predestined to be, all birthed
by his grace: first Eden and Sinai, then Tabor and Golgotha,
and finally, the Mount of Olives. These holy grounds
were chiseled and shaped, painted and draped—
creatio ex nihilo—as the highest beauty for the
most profound needs: a home for Imago
Dei exiles, the ten commandments
from God’s fire, then a son’s
birth, transfiguration, and
death on a cross. Then
finally, a resurrection
that would save
the world.
Selah.
The Healing Path, watercolor by Kimberly Phinney
Blue Ridge Dreaming, watercolor by Kimberly Phinney
KIMBERLY PHINNEY
Kimberly Phinney has been published in Christianity Today, Ekstasis, Fathom, Humana Obscura, The Dewdrop, and more. In 2024, she became a Pushcart Prize nominated poet with “Exalted Ground” from The Dewdrop Literary Journal. Her poem “An Ode to Hard, Dark Nights” also won the Audience Choice Award in the Bright Wings Poetry Contest with Ekstasis Magazine in 2024. In 2023, her small poetry collection, “Of Wings and Dirt” won runner-up in Fathom Magazine’s poetry contest.
A doctoral candidate in Community Care and Counseling, Kimberly holds a B.S. in English Education, an M.Ed. in English, and studied at Goddard’s Creative Writing MFA program. She founded The Way Back to Ourselves in 2022.
Kimberly was featured on Good Morning America for a national educator award and teaching her students through critical illness in 2023. Her debut poetry collection, Of Wings and Dirt, debuted as number one in Christian Poetry on the Amazon Charts in 2024. Her second collection, Exalted Ground: Poems of Praise and Lament for the Living, debuted as a bestseller in April 2025. She is at work on her next big project, a nonfiction book on her life’s work. She’s glad you’re here.