The 7 Stages

I found this marvelous painting on the Seven Days of Creation.

Interesting how the 7th Day is accorded great value, teaching us that rest is not just the absence of work. A zero. As a day of Shalom, it stands not as negation but as regeneration. A re-Genesis.

Last night I read Genesis 1. I found it fascinating that God could have set the whole entire Creation in motion in an instant, like hitting the switch. Lights, camera, action. The Six Days into a once and done snap of the fingers where man hits the ground walking.

Instead, God is progressive. He doesn't need to be, but as the Grand Artist, Creation develops and unfolds like a painting on a canvas. After each major stroke God declares it good. Once the painting of Creation is finished, He calls it very good. The sum is greater than the parts. On the 7th Day, He reflects. Again, not because He needs to but because He wants to. Wanting is is often more poignant and powerful than needing.

So, what does this teach mortal man? Remember, great work takes time. Enjoy the stages, step back from the canvas and reflect. Do things artfully, not with a hot sense of drudgery and dark duty. Take joy in the painting, both the process and the product. Much joy is ground up in the matrix of efficiency, turning life to powder, easily blown to the four winds. Color is good, embrace the spectrum, be it food or from the palette. Much possibilities exist in the 7 colors of the rainbow and the seven note musical scale. Create. Have fun. Be seriously joyful.

Genesis 1:31

And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

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