A Time to be Born
In the beginning God created the Heaven and the Earth.
There are two parts to this sentence, each with its own list of confounding, even overwhelming, questions. So I begin with the first part: In The Beginning.
In the beginning—there it is: Time.
- How did Time get here?
- Where did it come from?
- Was it the first thing God created?
- Even the concept “first” reinforces the idea that Time exists.
- Did Time just show up, all ready to go?
- Is there an end to finish up that which Time and God have just begun?
- Does a beginning automatically create an ending?
I’ve always thought that Time was a by-product of creation. Something that appears as a result of the process. Like the way yeast, once activated, changes the very nature of the ingredients into which it is mixed.
Yeast goes into the dough and bread is created.
So are we looking here at Creation bringing into existence Time as a side-effect of the process?
Or are we looking at Time as an integral part of the Creation process itself?
In this part of the first sentence, Time is before God.
Because of this positioning, you could ask the question, Which came first, Time or God?
And then sit until the end of Time wondering which it is.
Then there’s the issue of the concept of The Beginning.
- What beginning is this?
- Is it the beginning of Earth’s creation?
- Is this the beginning of God’s labor?
- The first contractions?
- Or is this the beginning of God?
- Of all existence, not just Earth?
Beginning: The point in time or space at which something begins.
A point in time. And guess what that means? A precise moment in time.
This Beginning is happening right here, right now. At this precise moment.
Here we have God, his Spirit, and void (that comes in a bit).
We have the act of creating, which is, in itself, a series of steps that is taken.
One.
Two.
Three.
And so on.
Which is another involvement of Time. First this. Then that. Then that.
One.
Two.
Three.
And so on.
My biggest consternation with all this is the fact that I spent many years as a young adult studying the different expressions of Time. We like to think that Time is just the ticking away of, well, time. Second after second after second. We’re the ones that have to fit our lives into it.
Not the other way around.
But that is not what I have both been taught and experienced.
The nature of Time can change. Can express itself in a variety of ways.
Now that I am getting older, I wish I had taken the advice of so many and kept a notebook of what I was being taught. But, back then, the lessons seemed so unreal that there were times that I felt they were more like movies than Lessons From God: they existed as entertainment.
Not as meaning.
But I do remember the exercise in the way time can stretch itself out. Because we have our minds so made up about the shape time takes, we miss the ways Time may not stay in line. So to speak.
Although, from time-to-time, I have read someone referring to the different expressions of time. Then I get to smile, and continue on my way.
So, if Time has a variety of formulations, which one is it that is there At The Beginning?
I will end with one last question: Was this a significant Point In Time? Or, in God terms, was it just another day on the job? Another creation?