Well, there's one word on this first leaf of the Book which contains the
clear reflection, sharply outlined, of the whole creation story; ah! yes,
more than that, of the whole Gospel story.

Come here and look; you can see in its clear surface the form of a man
climbing a little, steep hill, and being hung, thorn-crowned, upon a cross
of pain and shame. It is in chapter one, verse two, the word "brooding."
The old version and the Revision, both English and American, have the word
"moved." The Revisions add "brooding" in the margin. And that is the root
meaning of the word underneath our English--"brooding," or, rendered more
fully, "was brooding tremulous with love."




The Genesis Water-mark.


That English word "brooding," as well as the old word underneath, is a
mother word. The brooding hen sits so faithfully, day after day, upon the
eggs, bringing the new lives by the vital warmth of her own body. The
mother-bird nestles softly down upon the nest in the crotch of the tree,
patiently, expectantly brooding, by the strength of her own life giving
life to the coming young. She who, in the holiest, greatest function
entrusted to her, comes nearest to God in creative power and love--the
mother of our human kind, broods for long months over her coming child,
giving her very life, until the crisis of birth comes; and then broods
still, for months and years longer, that the new life may come into
fulness of life. That is the great word used here.