# Visualizing Creation In the beginning, the spirit or breath or mind or consciousness of God, hovered over the deep waters in absolute darkness. Above the waters, as high as you can think, darkness. Below the waters, as deep as you can imagine, void and formlessness, and darkness. And then the spirit of God spoke saying Let there be light. And light filled the space that was before creation. Day One. Then God opened up a great tent by separating waters. God called the roof the tent the firmament, and it held up the waters of the heavens above. The bottom of the tent was still nothing but sea - and so the tent was a great space filled with air between the waters above and the waters below. The second day. Then God reached down and pressed at the bottom of the tent, creating depressions in the earth underneath the waters that formed the tent floor. And the waters gathered in these depressions, exposing dry land in between. And on the dry land, like a wizard casting a spell, God spoke plants of all shapes and colors into existence, and they covered the dry land at the bottom of the tent and reached up towards the toward the sky. The Third Day. And then, God gathered the light of creation, like you might collect a liquid in your hands, and poured the light into great luminaries of red, white and silver, and hung the luminaries from the top of tent, so that now the top half of the tent shined with the sun, the moon and the stars, while the bottom half of the tent radiated the life and color of the plants and trees below. The fourth day. Then God spoke fish and birds into existence, and blessed them with sex and reproduction, and they filled the waters at the bottom of the tent and the air under the luminaries above. The fifth day. And then God spoke animals and humans into existence and gave them a portion on the dry land. And God created humans in God’s own image, creatures of spirit and breath, mind and consciousness, but not hovering over the deep in darkness but rather embedded in flesh and blood inside a great tent of light, life, color and movement. And God blessed humans with sex and reproduction, and charged them with government, forbidding them to kill any creature with the breath of life. The sixth day. And then God rested in the completeness of creation. And resting too were the heavens with their sun, moon and stars, and also the earth with its plants, fish, birds, animals and humans. All things rested in completion on the Seventh Day. Imagine all of us today inside the tent of creation: you can see how the top of the tent holds up the blue waters of the heavens above, you can feel the firm earth of the dry land under your feet at the bottom of the tent below - and then there is the great space of the tent all around us - filled with air, water, earth and life , from the seas below to the luminaries above. Five silent breaths. When you’re ready, come back….. By Shaiya Rothberg **