Creation Days: The First Day

 

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And God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light.

Genesis 1:3

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The first day presents us with the creation of space, time and matter. This initial creative act is not articulated in any direct word from God; we are simply told "God created the heavens and the earth." We can understand these as two distinct places: heaven is God's throne room and earth is the universe in which man dwells. Earth is described as having three specific problems; it was made formless, void and dark. The rest of the creation narrative will resolve each of these problems, the three first days are given to forming what is without form and the latter three days fill what is void. It is important to note that which goes unspoken, none of the expressions in Genesis speak of the continued creation of heaven, for it is created complete on the first day. The relationship between heaven and earth is that of archetype and image, earth is the mirror to heaven but what is finished in heaven on the first day is a continual becoming on earth. The earth is to grow gradually toward God's throne room, to be made as a ladder rising up to the heavens, first by the movement of God, then by the movement of God in man.

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However, the unspoken creation is not what our attention is drawn to on the first day, but the articulated Word of God making Himself known. These first words spoken by the Creator are not those of creation alone, but of revelation. "Let there be light" and there was light; the light of God. This is the light which surrounds God as a garment, which Moses received from God's mere passing by, which shined from Christ on Mount Tabor and which will illumine the new heavens and new earth for all eternity. With the spoken Word of God, His ineffable radiance is revealed against obects other than Himself, the Divine Ray of uncreated grace shines in, through and upon creation; in a moment, reason is given to the creation from the Logos. Light from Light covers all things and as God sees the light, He divides it from the darkness, day and night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.

Part 3 of 12 of the Creation Days series