new church life: jan uary / february 201 4
On the fourth day we experience a deepening of our love, represented by
the warmth of the sun, and the expansion of our faith, represented by the light
of the moon. Numberless truths, like the stars, begin to shine in our mental
universe, helping us to navigate our way through life. And God saw that it was
good.
On the fifth day, the world is filled with birds and fish and “creeping things
that the waters bring forth.” These living creatures represent the way love and
faith continue to expand in our minds. We begin to realize that the good
we do is not from ourselves, but from the Lord. This central truth enlivens
everything we say and do. It is represented by the world teeming with new life,
fish swimming in the sea, birds singing in trees, and eagles soaring through the
sky. And God saw that it was good.
And then we come to the sixth day of our spiritual journey, the day on
which God not only makes the animals but also human beings. And it is added
that God makes human beings in His own image, “male and female He creat ed
them. Then God blessed them and said, ‘Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth
and subdue it; have dominion over
the fish of the sea, over the birds of
the air and over every living thing
that moves on the earth’ . . . and
God saw that it was very good.”
This morning’s focus is upon
the sixth day, and especially on
what it means to be made in the
image of God. As it is written, “So
God created man in His own image;
in the image of God He created
him; male and female He created
them.” (Genesis 1:27) Up until this
point everything that God made
was good; but on this day it was
very good.
Biblical commentators have
come up with many ways of
explaining why God might have
declared this day to be “very good,”
while all the others were simply
“good.” The most obvious explanation is that this was the day when God
created the crown of His creation – human beings. Another explanation is that
the creation of the world is like a painter working on a masterpiece. As he fills
in each part of the canvas, he says to himself, “Oh, that’s good.” Finally, when it
What do the Writings of
the New Church teach
about the sixth day? Why
is it so special that God
would call it not just good,
but very good? The answer
lies in our understanding
that this story is not about
the literal creation of the
physical world, but rather
about the re-creation
of the human spirit.
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