The first readings from daily Mass for the first two days of this week are taken from Genesis, Chapter 1 into the opening verses of Genesis 2.  It is a familiar story to all from children to grandparents and everyone in between. Some Christians take it literally that in seven 24-hour periods, God created the world. Most Christians take it as an account of God’s role as the Creator of “all things visible and invisible” as the Creed says, or as Scripture proclaims: “All things came to be through him, and without him nothing came to be” (John 1:3).

Let me draw your attention to the creation account’s familiar opening verses: “In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth (lit. skies and the land) and the earth was without form or shape ( tohu wa’bohu; wilderness and wasteland | nothingness, no purpose or order) with darkness over the abyss (deep, symbolic for chaos) and a mighty wind (ruah, wind, Spirit, breath, presence) sweeping over the waters.”