The Genesis

The Genesis

By Ivan Aivazovsky

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, ‘Let there be light’: and there was light.

Genesis 1:1-3

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The Genesis depicts the first moment of creation, described in the opening verses of the Book of Genesis — a world “without form, and void,” with “darkness… upon the face of the deep.” Yet above the swirling waters and luminous shadows we see a heavenly being, the Spirit of God moving upon the face of the waters. Before a single word of creation was spoken, God was already present — near, attentive, hovering over the deep.

St. Augustine taught that “the whole nature of the universe itself which surrounds us proclaims that it has a most excellent Creator.” Aivazovsky’s depiction of primordial chaos bears this witness: even the unshaped waters are held in God’s hands. Nothing about creation is random or accidental. As Russell M. Nelson has testified, “The Creation did not happen by chance… It is God who made us and not we ourselves. We are His people! The Creation itself testifies of a Creator.” At its outset, the Bible story reveals a God who brings order from chaos, light from darkness, and life from the deep. In the words of poet Gerard Manley Hopkins, “the world is charged with the grandeur of God.”

The world that emerges from God’s word is not merely functional, it is beautiful, abundant, and filled with meaning. In the encyclical Laudato Si’, Pope Francis observed that “the entire material universe speaks of God’s love, God’s boundless affection for us. Soil, water, mountains: everything is a caress of God.” Creation is not only an act of creative power; it is an act of infinite tenderness and care. The God who formed galaxies also designed a world filled with profound and awe-inspiring beauty. As Cecil F. Alexander penned in her immortal hymn: “All things bright and beautiful, All creatures great and small, All things wise and wonderful: The Lord God made them all."

As we more fully comprehend and appreciate the rich majesty of creation, we can come to better understand its perfect and loving Creator. Goethe described nature as “God’s living, visible garment,” and poet Thomas Traherne wrote that “the world is a mirror of infinite beauty, yet no man sees it. It is a Temple of Majesty, yet no man regards it. It is a region of Light and Peace… It is the Paradise of God.” The created world becomes an invitation to worship God as the Divine Creator, and to see creation rightly is to feel the Creator’s joy moving through everything He made. Thus, in Traherne’s verse, “you never enjoy the world aright, till the sea itself floweth in your veins, ’till you are clothed with the heavens and crowned with the stars.”

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