The Fresh Waters of Creation

The Fresh Waters of Creation.

“We thank you, Almighty God, for the gift of water. Over it the Holy Spirit moved in the beginning of creation; through it you led the children of Israel out of their bondage to Egypt into the land of promise; in it your Son Jesus received the baptism of John and was anointed by the Holy Spirit as the Messiah, the Christ.” (a prayer during the Anglican liturgy of Holy Baptism, Book of Common Prayer, p. 306).

“… The earth was without form and empty, and the deep, raging ocean that covered everything was engulfed in complete darkness. The watery depths were shrouded in total blackness. And the Spirit-Wind of God hovered over the surface of the watery depths, sweeping over the face of the deep.” (Genesis 1:2).

Wait, what? Water existed before creation? I thought light was the first thing created, the “first creature?” The creation story in Genesis is full of mystery, of course, since it was not written by an eye witness or first-hand observer. The biblical creation story is an inspired attempt to describe the indescribable. The creation is not a science textbook, since it is pre-science, perhaps the vital introduction to the idea of science. It was written by Jews, for Jews. And so the ancient Hebrew imagination has to be taken into account in this story. Every ancient society had its own creation story, and one common part of each story is that the pre-created world was one vast, mysterious ocean of waters, a “primeval sea.” The world before creation was not nothingness, because it had this deep abyss of water that was formless, chaotic, lifeless, endless water. In ancient days, one couldn’t imagine anything more empty and formless than that. And so the Hebrew imagination thought that made sense to them as well. So it seems that these primordial waters in Genesis can be taken literally, or it can be taken as the one thing that would come closest to representing the state of chaotic nothingness in their minds. Before creation, there was thus thought to be a bottomless, watery abyss covered in darkness.

And now the inspired poetry of the creation story starts to take shape… Over this mysterious ocean of waters we read that the Spirit of God, the very Breath of Creator God Himself, sweeps over the face of these vast waters, hovering over this deep abyss like a brooding bird fluttering above the face of the waters. One gets the impression that life is about to hatch as the mother bird is moved into action to kick-start creation.

But that’s not the last we see of creation waters. On the second day, we find that God commanded with a Word the existence of a “sky dome” (Hebrew, “raquia”), to separate these waters into the water above and the water beneath, the waters high above the sky separate from the waters on earth. That Hebrew term strongly suggest that God created a solid vault to be placed between the waters, resulting in an ocean above the sky and an ocean beneath the sky. The raquia was the sky-dome, a solid upside-down bowl, that held up the higher waters in the vast atmosphere. The story of the creation waters then continues with the separation of waters on the earth on day three, which is when dry land first appeared. In His creation of the world, God separated the waters first vertically into the solid sky, and then horizontally upon the earth. Water currently covers 70% of the earth, but we are not sure if that has always been the case. We do know that life itself has depended on water ever since creation. We also don’t know to what extent the upper waters above the sky still exists, since in order for the Flood to occur God had to “open the floodgates of heaven” (Gen. 6:17). The Hebrew word for floodgates” is also translated as “windows”, so somehow God decided to allow at least some if not all of the upper waters to come to earth at that time.

Of course, we don’t know how “fresh” the waters of the primeval sea were, but scientists now have determined that water is actually between 4.5 to 5 billion years old. Water is now officially older than our sun, and at least as old as our solar system! What’s even more astounding is that the water we swim in and drink is the same water from all those billions of years ago! God has created water to exist in a continuous loop between the earth and the atmosphere, a divine water recycling program, that simply recycles the same water over and over again. God has designed a water cycle that brings water to the earth through precipitation (rain, snow, dew, moisture), which is then evaporated into the sky, condensing into clouds, which then causes precipitation to fall to the earth once again to support all of life. In its various forms as ice, rain, vapor, and liquid water, there is evidently no need to create new water. Over 90% of the water that is evaporated into the atmosphere returns to earth in precipitation. So, in other words, the water we hold in our hands is the same water from almost 5 billion years ago! The waters of creation are with us to this day, yet still remain fresh and essential to the world.

Japanese artist Makota Fujimura has proposed something wonderful, in the sense of full of wonder and awe… Noting that water has been constantly recycled for centuries, perhaps even since the dawn of time, he asks if the very tears of Christ are being recycled right now, at this moment? “Jesus’ tears are still with us. Physically in the air. We breathe them every day. Thus, in my studio, I paint with Jesus’ tears. I pretend that the very waters I use in my Nihonga technique are literally Jesus’ tears. All of us should be connected deeply to the mysteries of the tears of Christ. Archaeologists have discovered that in biblical times, there were things that we now call “tear jars.” Tears were so coveted that people kept them, in a jar. Jesus’ tears were not collected. They dropped one by one onto the hardened ground of Bethany (and Gethsemane). They evaporated into the air, and they are still with us today. We can collect them by faith today. Our institutions, and our lives, should be made up of these jars of tears. This is the miracle of the intuitive, to invoke the mystery which no analysis can tap into. Jesus’ tears were ephemeral and beautiful. His tears remain with us as an enduring reminder of the Savior who weeps.” Are His tears a part of the atmosphere and perhaps sanctifying it in some way? Just a thought.