12 Days of Christmas: Day 6


On the six day of Christmas my true love gave to me, six geese a-laying, five golden rings, four calling birds, three French hens, two turtle doves, and a partridge in a pear tree.

The six geese a-laying stood for the six days of creation.

Moses reports in Genesis 1 and 2 that God created the world in six days. He defines these days-there was evening, there was morning, one day. Hence Moses asserts that our Creator God created the earth in six twenty-four hour days, or one week. He eliminates the possibility of the usage of "day" being a longer period, such as "in my day young folk minded their elders." The day does not stand for a thousand years, a million years, or a billion years. They were six twenty-four hour days. Denying this fact is to call into question God's veracity, and if we doubt God in any point of his word then we cannot have the full assurance of our salvation.

On day one, we are told, God created light and separated light from darkness. One might wonder about this source of light since the sun isn't around. (The sun won't be created until the fourth day.) Anyone, however, who has been awake at daybreak knows that light appears before the sun is visible. St. Augustine offered the opinion in his City of God (de civitas dei) that God created the angels on this day and they provided light. Scripture remains silent on this point. What God's method was we'll probably learn in eternity.

On the second day there was another separation-water on land from the water in the sky. Hence the atmosphere comes into being. Is it possible that the amount of water above the earth in the atmosphere was greater before the Flood than after? The reduction in life spans is certainly incredible.

On the third day the water on earth is separated from the land. Continents and land forms thus appear so that mankind and beasts can live upon the land. With land God produced vegetation. Again, there was no sun to keep the plants alive, but that would be solved within 24 hours (not millions of years).

On the fourth day God creates the celestial beings-and with them the means to measure time in increments longer than days and weeks. The sun would be in place so that the earth would rotate around it once every 365 ΒΌ days. The moon would have a consistent 28 day cycle. The stars would be fixed and serve as navigation. It is interesting that for centuries sailors sailed the open seas and used the sun, moon, and stars for time keeping and navigation.

The copyright of the article 12 Days of Christmas: Day 6 in Lutheranism is owned by John L. Hoh, Jr.. Permission to republish 12 Days of Christmas: Day 6 in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

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