The Bible

 

Genesis 1:5

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5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first Day.

Commentary

 

Bless

  
This fresco was created by Franz Xaver Kirchebner in the Parish church of St. Ulrich in Gröden, Italy, which was built in the late 18th century.

The Lord in essence is perfect love expressed as perfect wisdom. He created us so that He could love us, give us love and wisdom of our own, and thus be united with us. This is the ultimate blessing, for us to receive His love and wisdom and to be together with Him, and all other forms and meanings of "blessing" flow from it. This flow, however, takes many different forms in the Bible. When people receive the Lord's blessing, it illustrates how His love and wisdom flow into us in forms that fit the spiritual state people represent in the Word. When people bless the Lord, it indicates an acknowledgment that life and all its gifts come from Him and shows a desire to accept them and be conjoined. When people bless each other, it represents the desire to share good desires and true ideas as much as possible.

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Heaven and Hell #59

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59. ALL HEAVEN IN THE AGGREGATE REFLECTS A SINGLE MAN.

That heaven in its whole complex reflects a single man is an arcanum hitherto unknown in the world, but fully recognized in the heavens. To know this and the specific and particular things relating to it is the chief thing in the intelligence of the angels there, and on it many things depend which without it as their general principle would not enter distinctly and clearly into the ideas of their minds. Knowing that all the heavens with their societies reflect a single man they call heaven the Greatest Man and the Divine Man; 1 --Divine because it is the Divine of the Lord that makes heaven (see above, 7-12).

Footnotes:

1. [Swedenborg's footnote] Heaven in the whole complex appears in form like a man, and for this reason heaven is called the Greatest Man (Arcana Coelestia 2996, 2998, 3624-3649, 3741-3745, 4625).

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Foundation for their permission to use this translation.