Jon Collins

God generates out of generous love something that is not God, but that is wholly contained within and sustained by God.

But that thing needs to then go on a journey of sharing in God's own rest to become one with God.

And that's the framework of the concept of creation in the story of the Bible.

Yeah, a journey of separation, of distinguishing, of things becoming their own thing.

But then also of things realizing... What do you mean by that?

Oh, the separating of days one through three.

Sure.

So God begins to order by separating things.

Oh, okay.

Day and night and waters above and below and dry land and sea.

But then these inhabitants are meant to begin joining things back together again.

So you have the lights that create this orderly partnership and alternation between the day and the night.

And all of a sudden, the things that are separate start working together.

And then you get the waters above and the waters below with their creatures.

Yeah, they function together like an ecosystem.

And then you get the land, which is this in-between, between the waters above and the waters below.

And then the rulers on the land...

are actually then commissioned to unite all of it by ruling over all of it.

The birds of the air, the fish of the sea, and the creatures on the land.

Yeah, so there's the separating, but then this unifying.