Let There Be Light: Creation and the First Dawn of Redemption
In the beginning, before time unfurled its first moment, Scripture tells us that “the earth was void and empty, and darkness was upon the face of the deep.”¹ Into this formless silence, God spoke His first creative word: “Fiat lux”—let there be light. By this divine utterance, the cosmos was summoned out of nothing, and light—symbol of life, truth, and divine presence—pierced the primordial darkness.
This first light is not merely the illumination of the created world but a sign pointing beyond itself. From the earliest centuries, the Fathers understood this moment as a foreshadowing of the coming of Christ, the uncreated Light who “shineth in darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.”² St Ambrose teaches that the first creation of light mystically anticipates the new creation in Christ, “for the light which God called forth is the beginning of all things, as Christ is the beginning of the new life.”³
The globe or sunburst upon the Jesse Tree represents not only the dawn of creation but the dawn of revelation—the moment when God first reveals Himself as the One who orders, separates, and blesses. Advent invites us to contemplate this act of divine generosity: God did not need the world, yet He desired to communicate His goodness. The same divine Word who said “Let there be light” in Genesis is the Word who will take flesh “to give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death.”⁴
As we hang the sign of creation upon the Jesse Tree, we remember that the story of salvation begins not in Bethlehem but in the abyss of nothingness from which God brought forth all things. The coming of Christ is the renewal of that first light—a healing of creation wounded by sin and a restoration of man to his true radiance. Advent is therefore a summons to step out of the darkness of sin and to welcome anew Him who is “the true Light, which enlighteneth every man that cometh into this world.”⁵
Let this symbol remind us that every sunrise, every breath, every moment of being is an act of divine mercy. The God who created light now desires to recreate our hearts, scattering the shadows that obscure His image within us. May this second day of Advent renew our longing for Him who brings order out of chaos and light out of darkness—Christ, the Light of the world.
- John 1:9 (Douay-Rheims).
- Genesis 1:1–2 (Douay-Rheims).
- John 1:5 (Douay-Rheims).
- St Ambrose, Hexameron, Book I, ch. 7.
- Luke 1:79 (Douay-Rheims).
THE JESSE TREE REFLECTIONS
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