THE CHRONICLE

In the beginning, there was the All.

Before the heavens opened, before the first Light shone upon the deep, the All was. Brahman, the eternal reality from which all existence arises, without beginning or end, beyond every name and form. The Most High. The Eternal. I AM THAT I AM.

There was no Earth below and no heaven stretched above. There was no sun to rise, no moon to govern the night, and no stars burning in the distance. There was no distance. There were no years waiting to pass, no seasons turning, no yesterday and no tomorrow. Time had not begun its rhythm, for the One who would give creation its rhythm had not yet spoken.

The All had no beginning. Nothing created the One, and nothing existed apart from God. There was no body, no boundary, and no measure by which the Eternal could be known. No throne was needed and no temple could hold such a presence. This was the uncreated Light behind all light, the only true Source of all that would ever be.

Every possibility of existence rested within that fullness. Heaven and Earth had not yet been separated, nor spirit and flesh, light and darkness, life and death. No boundary had been drawn across the deep. Nothing had been measured and nothing counted.

Yet the All was complete.

The One was beyond male and female, and neither could contain the fullness of God. In the ages to come God's children would cry out to their Father and be comforted by their Mother, and both would be true, for the One could be known in either without ever being divided. Humanity would give God many names, and though no word could ever hold all of the Eternal, the One would answer those who sought in truth.

All that would be made would live within the One, and the presence of the One would dwell within all that was made. Yet nothing made would ever contain the fullness of God.

Then the All willed creation to begin, and what had rested unseen began to be revealed.

The deep opened, without shore or horizon, and darkness covered its face. There was still no morning and no evening. There was only the deep, silent and waiting before the Eternal.

The Spirit of God moved over the waters.

The waters had no rivers to carry them and no shores to contain them. No wind had crossed their surface, and no living thing had stirred their depths. Yet the Spirit moved upon them, and what had rested without form began to stir.

Then the Most High spoke.

The first Word entered the deep. It was the first command creation had ever received, the first sound in a world without voices, and the beginning of everything that would follow.

“Let there be Light.”

And there was Light.

This first Light was older than the sun. It was the presence of God going out into the deep, carrying everything God is: love, truth, peace, joy and beauty, all shining as one. Wherever it went, something began to be, and everything it touched was made out of love and made to love, made in harmony and made to keep it. Space opened where there had been no space. Time began to move where there had been no time. All of it unfolded within the One, carried by the same presence that called it out.

God saw that the Light was good, and divided the Light from the darkness. The Light was called Day, and the darkness was called Night.

And there was evening, and there was morning, the first day.

On the second day God made the expanse and set it in the midst of the waters, dividing the waters above from the waters below. Above it God opened the heavens, and above those heavens there were heavens still, realm upon realm, world upon world, each brighter and finer than the one beneath. Creation was far larger than one sky. It was a house of many rooms, and every room stood within God. Below them all lay the world of matter, waiting for its shape.

And there was evening, and there was morning, the second day.

On the third day God gathered the waters below into one place, and the dry land appeared. The land was called Earth, and the gathered waters were called Seas. Earth was neither the first world God made nor the last, yet it held a special place in God's heart. Then God spoke to the ground, and the ground answered with green: grass and seed and every tree bearing fruit after its kind. The first living things rose out of the soil, and each carried within it the seed of what would come after it.

And there was evening, and there was morning, the third day.

On the fourth day God filled the heavens of the world with lights. The great light was set to rule the day, the lesser light to rule the night, and the stars were scattered past counting, burning in their millions across a universe wider than any eye would ever measure. They were given for signs and for seasons, for days and for years. From that day on the world had its rhythm, and every calendar humanity would ever keep began with those lights.

And there was evening, and there was morning, the fourth day.

On the fifth day God called life out of the waters. The seas swarmed with living creatures, from the smallest to the great beasts of the deep, and birds rose over the earth and crossed the open sky. God blessed them and told them to be fruitful and to multiply. For the first time, creation was moving on its own.

And there was evening, and there was morning, the fifth day.

On the sixth day God called the land to bring forth living creatures, cattle and creeping things and every beast of the earth after its kind. Then God made humankind in the divine image, male and female, both of them carrying that image in full. Into them was placed what no other creature carried in the same way: the capacity to know their Maker, to choose love, and to answer when they were called. They were given the earth to tend, and every green thing for food.

God saw everything that had been made, and it was very good.

And there was evening, and there was morning, the sixth day.

On the seventh day God rested.

Nothing more was added. The heavens stood finished above the heavens, the earth was green, the seas were full, and the stars kept their seasons. God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, a day set apart to stop and remember who made all things and in whom all things live. Whoever keeps a day of rest keeps a piece of that first stillness.

All that had been made lived within God, and God was present in all of it. Yet the whole of creation, every heaven and every world, could never contain the fullness of the One who made it.

Long ages of the world would pass before Adam opened his eyes, and every one of them began here, in the beginning, with the All.