They had always been. No created angel could say how long that was because each of them had their own beginning within eternity; beings that sprang from the creativity of endless, measureless love.

They had always dwelt in unending and unfathomable light; the light of truth, of purity, of love. Not the light of holiness or righteousness because those are the creation's subjective descriptions measured against the unmeasureableness of ultimate truth and love.

These "Malachim" - angels (so creation called them) - were creatures of pure spirit and light that (although they were created with free will) chose to stay in the light, chose to worship in unending glory and unlimited power. They had free access to their Creator for there was as yet nothing to separate them; that would come later as the hearts of some turned to higher thoughts and ambitions than they had been created for and became discontent, arrogant, proud.

Already there was fellowship within the Godhead; an unfathomable one-ness that expressed itself in diverse ways, such that those created would struggle for millennia to describe the indescribable, to limit the diversity within the One-ness through words and thoughts and debates and wars that had never entered the desires of eternity.

But still this wasn't enough for the One who had created these beings. The eternal love song was bursting with creativity and sought an outlet, sought for fellowship and reciprocated love and communication, sought for even more ways to express the fullness of a heart that had loved from eternity and was creating all the time.

And so came The Plan.