CHRISTMAS IN GENESIS: THE FIRST LIGHT OF THE WORLD

In the beginning, when the Bible opens its first breath, it speaks of a world wrapped in darkness and then suddenly kissed by light—and in that holy unveiling, Christmas already begins to whisper. For Christmas is the story of Light stepping into our night, and Genesis chapter 1 is the first announcement that God delights to speak light where none existed, life where nothing lived, order where chaos trembled. When “God said, ‘Let there be light,’” it was more than the dawn of creation; it was the shadow of another dawn yet to come, the moment when Jesus Christ—the true Light—would shine into a world lost in a deeper darkness (John 1:9). Creation’s morning was a prophecy; Bethlehem was its fulfillment.

And as God separated light from darkness, calling one “day” and the other “night,” He was already preparing a world that would understand the One who would later say, “I am the light of the world.” The first sunrise was a promise that another sunrise would come—the rising of the Son—not in the heavens above Eden but in a manger held by a young mother in the stillness of Judea. Every created beam of light is a reflection of Him; every sunrise is a sermon about His presence; every sunset is a gentle reminder that He came to walk into our darkness so He could one day raise us into His everlasting morning.

And when God formed the earth, clothed it with waters, crowned it with sky, and draped it with fields and forests, He was crafting the very stage upon which the Savior would walk. The dust He gathered into Adam’s frame would one day be the same dust beneath the feet of Immanuel. The voice that spoke galaxies into being would one day cry as an infant, whisper comfort to the weary, and finally declare, “It is finished” from a cross lifted between heaven and earth. In creation, God shaped a world fit to receive a Redeemer; in Christmas, that Redeemer stepped inside the world He shaped.

And when God breathed life into man, giving him a beginning and a purpose, He was preparing the way for the One who would come to give us a new beginning and an eternal purpose. It is no accident that Genesis begins with life and the Gospels begin with birth. The God who said “Let there be light” is the same God who said “Fear not, for unto you is born this day.” The God who fashioned the first Adam is the same God who sent the last Adam to restore what had fallen. Creation was the opening verse; Christmas is the refrain that brings hope back into the melody.

So when we read Genesis chapter 1 at Christmastime, our hearts bow before a Christ who was not merely born into the world but was the Maker of the world; not merely the Child in the manger but the Light that chased away creation’s first darkness; not merely the reason for our season but the reason for our existence. Before there was a Bethlehem, there was a beginning—and in that beginning, God was already telling the story of His Son.

BDD