NUGGETS
of Truth
The Ruach of the Day
They heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the cool of the day,
and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God
among the trees of the garden.
(Genesis 3:8)
Adam came into being in a garden in the midst of a new earth that was perfect in every way. Designed by the Creator, abundant in beauty and provision, immense in its scope and potential, this new earth was a paradise of light and life and possibilities.
Adam was not alone in the garden. He could sense the presence of the LORD God with him in this new world. Adam experienced His voice, His presence, His touch, His revelation and His guiding hand. He knew his Creator in inconceivable light, in swirling motion, in stillness and in peace. His spirit was deeply connected to the Spirit of God.
His ruach was intimately aligned with the Ruach of God.
Most often translated “spirit” or “wind” or “breath,” the Hebrew word ruach embraces movement. Ruach flows. It breathes. Occasionally ruach speaks of the stirring up of deep emotions.
But only in Genesis 3:8 is it ever translated “cool.”
Adam and Eve had messed up. The perfection of the garden had been pierced with unauthorized motion—a reaching for fruit that was denied to them—then the surging of previously unknown emotions and a frantic rush to hide themselves from the face of God. The normal movements of their day had been disrupted. Their world had become less sure, less friendly. The forbidden unknown had entered into their lives, and in the midst of the chaos of unfamiliar motions and emotions, they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the ruach of the day.
What is the ruach of the day?
Time is a fascinating thing, far beyond my comprehension. Yet I continue to question the translation of Genesis 3:8 in our English Bibles. What does it mean that God approached Adam and Eve in the ruach of the day?
Does time itself contain some of the essence of God?
All things were created by Jesus, who is “the radiance of [God’s] glory and the exact representation of His nature” (Hebrews 1:3). Out of the emptiness of nothingness, all things came into being through Him. Everything that has ever been created came from the heart of God, the mind of God, the creativity of God, the very essence of God, and it came into being through Jesus Christ, His Son.
Of all of creation, only mankind was created in the image of God. There is something we carry that goes above and beyond what the rest of creation carries. Yet that does not mean that the rest of creation is devoid of God’s essence. And if creation itself is imbued with the essence of God and if God is spirit, then creation itself carries something of the Spirit of God within its existence.
How can something be created that does not carry some of the essence, some of the spirit, of its creator?
When an artist creates a work of art, it carries an indelible something that marks her work as coming from her. There is a personal aspect that no other artist can adequately recreate because her art is infused with the light that came from her spirit. It is infused with her own God-given creative spark. It comes from how her eyes have seen the world around her. It comes from the struggles and joys in her life. That work of art which she creates comes from the unique God-given essence within her, through the myriad experiences of her life, and it shines forth in her artwork in such a way that her art is instantly recognizable as having come from her hand.
Time was born in God’s mind and conceived by His Son in the active presence of His Spirit. The Triune God brought forth time, and like the artist whose work is known because of the stamp of her unique essence upon it, time itself carries the stamp of God’s essence within it.
Time flows. Time moves inexorably onward. Each day is new. Each day is unique. And every moment of every day carries the unique breath of God embedded within it. Each day carries the signature of Almighty God.
We don’t have language for that, and our lack of understanding, our lack of being able to comprehend how that could possibly be, prevents us from translating Genesis 3:8 as it should be: “They heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the spirit of the day.”
The spirit of the day is nothing like our human spirits.
We are created in His image, and that puts a different kind of stamp upon us. But regardless of our lack of a better word in either Hebrew or English, we need to understand that time is a spiritual reality as well as a physical reality.
Time was created by God and is deeply connected into Him through the very fact of having come from His essence. Whether we call it “spirit” or some other name, the concept is the same.
God created time on the first day, and then He immediately separated out different aspects of time to show us that all time was not created to be the same. There was day and there was night. There was evening and there was morning.
Then on the fourth day, God continued to delineate different flavours of time. There are seasons and cycles of years. Each day is unique. Each moment of each day is unique. Time unfolds in synchrony with the unfolding of God’s plans for His creation. Time flows with the flow of God’s Spirit upon it, connecting deeply with it. Time is alive with the essence of its Creator within it.
And in the garden there was a time of the day which carried a particular essence of Yahweh Elohim, and another time of the day which carried yet another flavour of His presence, of His essence.
Can our finite minds comprehend such a thing?
Not easily.
“For we know in part and we prophesy in part; but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away” (1 Corinthians 13:9).
We attempt to comprehend the mysteries and the glory and the majesty of the universe through eyes that are woefully inadequate to see and minds that are infinitesimally small compared to the immensity of the mind of the Most High God.
But even though we cannot fully comprehend the revelation that has been given to us, we crave the revelation that is yet to come.
We reach for inexpressible truth.
And we worship.
© Christine Fisher
March 2026
