In the moment before God said, “Let there be light”-
-but hold on. It’s not even quite right to say “before”, since that word describes the passage of time, and time as a category didn’t exist before God spoke it into being. Let’s try that again.
In the timeless space where God said “Let there be light”-
-oh wait. Space was also created alongside time. God was not sitting in empty space before creation. Space just… wasn’t.
I’m not a physicist, and maybe if you are you’re already bristling with some technical mistake I’ve made. Forgive me, but hear me out. How do we describe the nature of the environment, realm, field that existed? What is true to say about God’s experience of ante-creation eternity?
Well, what I’m going to offer is my reflection and my lightly-held opinion. Not rock solid doctrine. I can start with a fundamental and unarguable truth: all things (defined as broadly as possible) are either uncreated or created. That actually is the most fundamental distinction in all existence and history. In that first category is the Triune God, Yahweh. In that second category is everything else, also known as ‘creation’.
So, in the beginning, God is. Because God is Triune, and all three persons have always enjoyed perfect love and community together, it is safe to say that the community of God’s love existed antecedent to creation.
This is the part that trips me up: it’s one thing to imagine God in his triune fullness suspended in space, enjoying himself. It’s another thing to imagine nothing around him. No planets, stars, galaxies. Now try to imagine that that plane of existence called space or matter is also not there. There’s no backdrop to picture God inhabiting, it’s like a weird close-up, because He is everything.
But God is not a unitary person. He sees his image reflected in his Son, and he loves that image, and the Spirit is the personal communication and experience of that love. So, I think that the environment in eternity past was the relationship of the Trinity.
So, if that has some truth to it, and I admit that I might be wrong, then there’s a certain resonance in considering what kind of environments we create by our relationships.
I think you probably see where I’m going with this. Have you ever walked with a group, or walked with a couple, and noticed the environment that their relationship creates? Some are life-giving, some make you feel comfortable to share troubles and ask for advice. Some… some put a wet blanket on everyone, and leave you wondering if you’ll get pulled into their constant simmering proxy war.
Well, for this author, as a husband, I can testify to that special something that exists in a space when my wife and I are both there. We create an environment, and one day, tiny people will literally live in that environment.
So, if you have a spouse, there really is something to saying “you are my world”, because well, it seems that they create a new world when they are around you.
May my meditation be pleasing to him, for I rejoice in the Lord.
Ps 104:34
Distilled Orthopraxy 