In the Beginning

Genesis 1-2        

Have you ever wondered about our world - - what makes us have day and night, why we have the water and the land, where all the plants and animals came from, and even about yourself? These are all important questions - - questions people have always asked. Just looking around you can help you know something about the answers. There had to be Someone very wise to know how to make such a wonderful world. That Someone had to be very powerful to put the sun, moon and stars in the sky. That Someone had to be able to reach beyond our neighborhoods to provide for such a big world. And it had to be Someone who loved us very much, who thought about all of our needs and planned for them so carefully.

Yes, by just looking around us we can know that somewhere, somehow there was a very special Someone to make the world we live in. But that Someone gave us something besides our world. He gave us another way to find out about Him and what He has done for us. He gave us a special book that we call the Bible.

The Bible is the most important book in the world. When you study the Bible you will find it answers the questions about how everything began. The very first sentence of the Bible tells us the name of the One who created the world: God told men certain words to write down so that today we can read what He wants us to know. In this way we will come to know Him, to love Him and to find out how we can show our love.

Now, let’s see what it says about the beginning of our world. We read, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”

God spoke and our universe with all its plants and animals came to be. The Bible tells us that at first the earth had no shape and darkness was everywhere.

On the first day of creation, God said, “Let there be light.” And there was light. He called the light the name we use now - - day. And the darkness He called night, just as you and I do.

On the second day, God made the heavens by dividing the waters above from the waters beneath. Now there was sky with clouds to carry moisture.

On the third day, God made land and sea. He said, “Let the waters under the earth be gathered together in one place, and let the dry land appear. “He called the dry land earth and the gathering together of the waters He called seas. That dry land that appeared was bare. It was ready for all the pretty green plants we have today.

God made all the plants on the third day, too. All the grass, herbs and trees were created then. And the fruit of all the plants had seeds in them for new plants.

On the fourth day, God made the sun, moon, and stars. He said, “Let there be light … to divide the day from the night; let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years.” The greater light He made to rule the day – our sun. The lesser one He made to rule the night - - our moon. Just think of God’s great power, that He could put the sun, moon and stars into the sky and make our earth turn for night and day.

Then, on the fifth day, God made the creatures of the sea and the birds of the air. Who but God would have thought of so many shapes, sizes and colors for all the birds and fish? And who but God would have planned so carefully for their homes before He put them on earth? The Bible says He blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas and let birds multiply on the earth.”

On the sixth day God created the beasts, cattle and creeping things. This would have included all four-legged animals and those that crawl on the ground. Still there was one thing left to be done. Can you think of what that was? God had not yet made people! Now the earth was ready for man.

So God said, “Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness.” He wanted man to rule “over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, over cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. “The Bible tells us, “And God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him, male and female created he them.”

“Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good.”

“Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them were finished. And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all the work which He had done.

TALKING IT OVER

1. God made sure there were homes for all the animals before He created them. Tell how He put certain animals in places best for them - - like camels in desert lands.
2. Every living thing depends on other living things in a food chain. The bugs in a garden are part of that chain. How can frogs help?
3. How did God plan for people to have homes and food?
4. What was the beginning? What does create mean?

Credits
Text by Betty Belue Haynes, originally published in Bible Talk Times. Used here with the kind permission of the author. Users are free to reproduce for use, but not for publication.