“And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, ‘Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.’” (Exodus 3:14).
I have been reflecting on the story of creation over the last few days.
When you read the story of creation in Chapter 1 of the book of Genesis, the creation story and sequence is clearly broken down into three parts.
The story of creation begins with the creation of TIME and SPACE. God – who is UNCRATED – is outside of time and space because He always was and always is and always will be. This is why in the Book of Exodus He identified Himself to Moses as “YAHWEH”, or “I AM”. Because He is ever-present…
“And Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say to me, What is his name? What shall I say unto them? And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.” (Exodus 3:13-14).
So, when God was creating the world, the first thing He did was create Time and Space because He wished to create a PLACE to put us into a certain TIME and a certain SPACE. And that is why when God the Son came to redeem the world, in the moment of the Incarnation, Christ entered into Time and Space – that time and space for love of us…
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and He separated the light from the darkness. God called the light ‘day,’ and the darkness He called ‘night.’ And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day. And God said, ‘Let there be a vault between the waters to separate water from water.’ So God made the vault and separated the water under the vault from the water above it. And it was so. God called the vault ‘sky.’ And there was evening, and there was morning—the second day.” (Genesis 1:1-3).
And then there was the second stage of creation… And that happened during the last four days of creation, when God embellished the creation that He had made… He added vegetation, animals and finally humans… And the thing that I have been thinking about today is that on the last day of creation the pattern in the narrative changed. Instead of ending on the final day of creation, we are told… “God saw all that He had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day.” (Genesis 1:31).
Because creation did not end, just as the last day of creation continues into the Day of Rest. Because God allowed us a day of rest, not because He was tired and needed a rest – He is outside of time and space and therefore never needs to rest, as rest is associated with the temporal. He created the day of rest on the seventh day out of love for us. Because NOW, God is resting in the Divine and He wants us to take the time to contemplate that. For what could be a more beautiful thing to think about than that?
For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.