The Light

 DEVOTION

GENESIS

THE LIGHT

Gen 1:1-5

1:1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 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. 3 And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. 4 God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light "day," and the darkness he called "night." And there was evening, and there was morning — the first day.

NIV

As we begin, when life as we know it began with God creating everything that is needed to sustain the life of the man he would form, there are some very interesting truths we should explore again. This is a story we are so familiar with, yet, with the help of the Spirit's inspiration, we can see something new. Because we are told the earth was formless and empty, we understand that the earth simply did not exist yet. The one truth we have some difficulty with is that darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. Because we know that God is light, and that from the revelation he gave to John, God is the complete source of light in the new city of Jerusalem that sits on, or entirely fills, the mountain of God. What existed before anything God created all that is, the creator was the depth of the waters, where there was no light. Because of the presence of God, all three of the persons of God, wherever God was, there must have been light, for God is light, and there is no darkness in him. Yet, there was darkness over the surface of the deep where the Spirit of God hovered. Then God spoke; he did not have to wave his hand or do something magical; he just spoke. "Let there be light," and that is what happened; light appeared. How, exactly, did he separate the light from the darkness we cannot fully grasp; however, there is, in some sense, how we can understand the difference between the light and the darkness. Once we lived in the darkness, because we lived apart from God. Although we are always in the presence of God, for he is omnipresent, we refused to acknowledge him and lived according to our own hearts, which were filled with darkness. In some sense, in that darkness, we hovered over the depths of death. However, on the first day of our new lives, God said, "Let there be light," and there was light, and he saw that his light within us was good. He separated the light in us from the darkness that once was. That was the beginning of a new life, a reborn life, being separated from the darkness of night to live in the light of day. Of course, as his light shines upon and within us, it exposes anything that still might linger in the depths of our hearts that should be excommunicated and sent packing. That may not happen on day one, or the first day, but when the light is within, there should be no darkness. Thank you, Lord, for the light.