“Creativity” and “Cre-Activity”
3 And God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light. 4 And God saw that the light was good, and God 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.” (Genesis 1:3-5)
The “BIG” Difference
God has it easy when it comes to creativity: “For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm” (Psalm 33:9). For us, however, we “speak” and everything remains to be done; we “command” and nothing moves, unless we take action and follow the steps to see an outcome. Of course, with a smart home, we could always say, “Google, turn on the light!”—but we will still have to get ourselves out of bed.
There is nothing to lament or regret about “this big difference.” As we are created in His image, we are called to be “creative” or, better said, to be “Cre-Active.” The path to human CreActivity, sometimes, is a sequence of big flops until we are happy with the results.
In the body of homiletic exegesis (Midrash Rabbah, compiled around 400–450 CE), the Midrash interprets the phrase from Genesis 1:5, "And it was evening and it was morning, one day," as follows: Rabbi Abbahu said: “This teaches that the Holy One, blessed be He, was creating worlds and destroying them, creating worlds and destroying them, until He created these [the current heavens and earth]. He said: 'These please Me; those did not please Me'“ (Bereshit Rabbah 3:7). The Midrash is not always filled with gems, but this one is absolutely delicious and encouraging.
Subtle Allusion and a Touch of Humor
Within these three verses of Genesis lies a subtle allusion and a light touch of humor. The subtlety resides in the fact that it is the Word spoken by God in the dawn of time that becomes “Light,” suggesting that in His Word, we possess an inexhaustible source to dissipate the obscurities of our lives.
Note: The Hebrew here is a sweet-sounding play between Or (אור) and Torah (תורה). The first Tav (ת) of the Book of Genesis is in the word Bereshit (בראשית). If, after that Tav, you count intervals of seven letters, the Vav (ו) appears; repeat this, and you will find the word Torah (תורה) encrypted.
The touch of humor is hidden in the fact that it is God who “sees that the light is good”—as if He did not already know or needed to verify the result! In His wake, He simply invites us to be illuminated by it and to discover, in our turn, the goodness of His gift in His spoken and written Words.
From “Evening” to “Morning”
The Primordial light continues its course at nearly 300,000 km/s. We cannot intend—or even dream, unless we are science fiction junkies—to travel at such speed; otherwise, our body mass would tend toward the infinite, causing a cosmic collapse. It would not be a “Big Crunch,” but at point-blank a “Big Nothing”!
Fortunately for us, the first "evening" and the first "morning" of the world appear just after its creation. This light does not reduce its speed, but it begins to provide the rhythm for our days and nights. Here too, the Hebrew text is of great depth:
The "Evening" (‘erev / ערב): refers to that intermediate time between the decline of the sun and its disappearance on the horizon. It is the moment when the majority of living beings slow their pace. ‘Erev evokes the mixing and blurring of forms; it is the necessary withdrawal of light to allow for regeneration. In modern language, it is that indispensable “decompression time” to take refuge in the gestating matrix of the night, so that it may give birth to the morning.
The "Morning" (boqer / בקר): The language of the Hebrew Bible is of absolute rigor: boqer is the morning act of "cleaving" or "breaking through" the darkness to examine, scrutinize, and distinguish what we will have to accomplish. Each new day the bearer of renewed discernment and cre-activity. "Discernment" is one of the profound meanings of boqer.
The morning is not just an hour like any other; it is a faculty of the soul and the spirit. It is also the moment when we are most capable of searching for His Face, reading His Word, and welcoming what we have to accomplish in each walking step.
Turn on the Light!
“Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” (Psalm 119:105; Psalm 118:105 in the LXX).
There is a loving way to dissipate the darkness, the uncertainties, and the shadow zones of our existence: it consists of “turning on the light” by reading His Word first thing in the morning. It is a very ancient Jewish approach to reading the holy words of His mouth; this old Jewish practice became one of the fundamental practices of the Oriental and Western monastic movements. It was renamed lectio divina, or the daily practice of meditative reading the Scriptures.
We should always, or whenever possible, expose our souls, our minds, and our willingness for action to His Word first thing in the morning. This is the real moment when we turn the light on—where we can ask for counsel and direction, whether it be to commit to one path or to abandon another.
This process requires a decision and an initial “Cre-Activity” on our part. How to engage in these reading practices will be the subjects of the next posts: The Way of the Lazy Reader and The Way of the Cre-Active Reader.