The Bible

 

Genesis 1:23

Study

       

23 And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.

Commentary

 

One

  

A company might have executives setting policy and strategy, engineers designing products, managers handling personnel and others handling various functions. They all do different things -- but if they're doing them with a shared underlying purpose, the company -- and the individuals in it -- will likely be successful. The Lord wants all human society to function in a similar way. We have different skills and individual loves, but if we all share a mutual love -- a love of serving others -- then society will function as one, will be a reflection of heaven and will be a good receptacle for the Lord's love. This can also happen within each of us, as we unify our talents and ideas around a central love. And in an abstract sense, it illustrates how a wide collection of varying ideas can be unified around a shared good intention. That is the kind of love pictured when “one” is used in the Bible, either as a specific number or in the sense of several people or objects “being one.” In more casual references -- when used to identify a specific person or object -- the meaning is relatively literal, and is connected to that person or object.

Commentary

 

Morning

  
Two gorgeous red poppies -- one popped, and one just about to.

Morning comes with the rising of the sun, and the sun -- which gives life to the earth with its warmth and light -- represents the Lord in His divinity, bringing spiritual life through love and wisdom. Thus, the morning represents the coming of the Lord into our lives, and all the things that flow from it: the love, joy and enlightenment He brings; the peace and tranquility of passing the spiritual obscurity of night; the anticipation of the learning and usefulness of a new day; and the awareness of The Lord's renewed presence.

(References: Apocalypse Explained 179; Apocalypse Revealed 151; Arcana Coelestia 2333 [1-3], 2540, 2780, 5740, 8211, 8812, 10134, 10200, 10413; True Christian Religion 764 [1-2])