Today is the Fourth Day of Advent, and We Will Talk about Day 4 of God’s Creation of the World.

Then God said, “Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years; ¹⁵ and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth”; and it was so. ¹⁶ Then God made two great ^[d]lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. He made the stars also. ¹⁷ God set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth, ¹⁸ and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. ¹⁹ So the evening and the morning were the fourth day. Genesis 1:15-19.

Let’s Review for a Minute:

On Day 1 of Creation, God Overcame Darkness by Creating Light.

On Day 2 of His Creation of the World, God Created the Sky or Heaven to Separate the Waters that had been the Stuff of the World before that point.

.On Day 3 of His Creation of the World, God Created the Earth or Land to Separate the Seas from Dry Land. On Day 3, He also created the grass, the plants, and the trees.

On Day 4 of His Creation of the World, God Created the Sun, the Moon, and the Stars.  The Light that God Created on Day 1 was Merely a Lightness. God Created the Sun, Moon, and Stars Days Later. In my opinion, it was on Day 4 that God began to Fill His World with Wonder.

I concede that the flowers that God created on Day 3 amaze me. I spend much of my time outside in my garden–growing and gazing at my flowers, but on Day 4, God created the Stars, Moon, and the Sun–and those elements added a degree of wonder that has sparked the imagination–probably almost forever–at least, since Day 4.

I cannot begin to name all the civilizations that have worshipped the sun.

PAGAN SUN-WORSHIP.

“Sun-Worship the Oldest and Most Widely Diffused Form of Paganism….

“The sun-god, under various names, Mithras, Baal, Apollo, etc., was the chief god of the heathen pantheon.” Lewis, Abram Herbert. Paganism Surviving in Christianity

Think for a minute about how very much the ancient people depended upon the sun. The sun provides light. On cold days, it is warmer if you stand in the sun, and the fact that the sun made food grow was essential for the ancient people.

As people became aware of the power of the sun, they began telling stories about this supreme element in the sky. Literature was born and with it, mankind’s ability to imagine had been ignited.

While I appreciate the magnificence of the sun, I am more inspired by the moon. When I was a child, I would sit in my bedroom window and watch the moon and stars for hours:

The moon and stars play heavily in my illustrations:

The Cow Jumped Over the Moon
Jacki Kellum Digital Art
Created on iPad Pro with the App Procreate

I began this post early in the day, and later, I landed upon a quote from The Little Prince, and I was struck again by how vividly the author of that book had captured the nature of stars–philosophically speaking,

The brilliance of The Little Prince is that the narrator can distill reality into exquisitely simple words. The book begins when the narrator was a child and was discouraged that the grownups were unable to understand his art — or to understand anything that was meaningful to him. As he grew older, the narrator kept the drawing that the adults had failed to understand, At various times, he would try a new group of adults, and when that new group also failed to understand what he had drawn he would once more put his drawing away. 

“Then I would never talk to that person about boa constrictors, or primeval forests, or stars.” Antoine de Saint Exupéry, The Little Prince.

I have learned that there are at least two camps of people in regards to the stars. The first group of people see stars as passages into magic and the other people only see stars as bits of burning rock. Although I am not explaining myself very well, in my opinion, that thought captures my position that on the 4th Day, God Created the Sun, the Moon, and the Stars, and He also added Magic to the World.

The Poets among us spend our lives trying to catch glimpses of that Magic–if only for brief, enchanted moments. And that is how I start one of my picture book manuscripts:

“There’s a brief, enchanted moment,
As the moonlight turns to day,
When Bullfrogs hoop and holler,
And the Gator lets’ them play,”

I wrote that passage at least 25 years ago, and shortly afterward, my house fire burned the manuscript. the following studies for the illustrations were salvaged [barely]. You can see the water and fire damage in the following illustrations. But like the narrator of The Little Prince, I have saved these drawings and these fragments from my manuscript remind me that life is truly magical. Sometimes the magic is almost buried for me, but it is still there.

“There’s a brief, enchanted moment as the moonlight turns to day,
When the Bullfrogs hoop and holler,

“And the Gator lets them play,” – Jacki Kelllum

The thing about poets and glimpses of magic is that things like housefires, divorces, and other brushes with reality are numbing for most of us/

I have said this many times, but I am easily depressed, and I often quit drawing, painting, and writing. When I am in one of those states, I sleepwalk through life.

Invariably, however, the light breaks through, and Morning Breaks Again.

Morning Has Broken
Jacki Kellum Acrylic Painting

On Day 4 of His Creation, God Created the Sun, Moon, and Stars, and after that, the Morning Broke.

^” So the evening and the morning were the fourth day.” Genesis 1:19