Genesis - Chapter 01 - Line 00002

Contemplative Summary

And the earth was formless and empty, and darkness was over the face of the deep, and the spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

Before the first word was spoken, creation held its breath. The earth existed as tohu va-vohu — unformed and unfilled — an open field of potential without boundary or distinction. The Hebrew tohu suggests formlessness or unreality, while bohu carries the sense of void or absence. Yet this absence was not abandonment; it was readiness. Over the dark surface of the tehom — the deep, the unfathomable — moved the ruach Elohim, the Spirit or breath of God, described by merachefet — hovering, trembling, alive with expectancy. The scene is one of suspended motion, where chaos and divine presence coexist. Darkness and Spirit share the same space, not as opposites but as partners in anticipation.

This moment reveals creation not as instant command but as divine attentiveness — the Spirit abiding over what is not yet, infusing emptiness with potential. To linger here is to sense the quiet before awareness takes form, the sacred pause between nothing and something. What seems void may be the womb of becoming, awaiting the first light to emerge.