This lesson is compatible with the "Creation, Adam, and Cain" Flash-A-Cards from Abeka Books.
Scripture References: Genesis 1:1-19
Darkness. Black all around. Imagine if there were no light. Anywhere.
And quietness. Not a single sound. No birds singing. No crickets chirping. I don’t think I would like that. That is how the earth was when God created it. The Bible says God took 7 of our days to create the Earth and the Universe. He could have done it all at once, but He chose to use 7 days.
God the Father, God the Son (Jesus), and God the Holy Spirit were all there from the beginning of time. And even BEFORE the beginning of time. God is the one who created time!
God began creation by forming heaven (outer space) and earth. But it was all dark. There was no land on earth. Everything was covered in water. The Bible says the Holy Spirit moved over the face of the waters.
God spoke one sentence: “Let there be light!” With this one simple sentence, BAM! I like to imagine there was a loud clap of thunder that could be heard galaxies away. Light shone bright all around the earth. There was no sun yet. Just light.
God looked at the light and said, “It is good.” I imagine he was speaking to God the Holy Spirit, and Jesus. They must all have agreed with him. Light is very good. And beautiful!
God then divided the light from the darkness. The light he called Day, and the dark he called…? (Night!) That first night, which began in darkness, and the first morning (light) was the first day. God began the day at night! We begin our days at the sunrise, but some people…the Jews, still consider the beginning of night to be the beginning of the day. Their holidays always begin at the evening, instead of the morning sunrise.
The next day, God spoke again. He said “Let there be space in between the waters. Let there be water above the space, and water beneath the space.” I imagine water drops began to form, and float in the air as it began to make a big space in the middle of itself. The oceans settled down to their place on the earth, and the clouds floated to their place in the sky. The atmosphere, or air that we breathe was formed! God looked at the atmosphere and called it heaven. This is not the heaven that God lives in. It is what we call the sky, where we can fly kites now days.
That second evening, and the next morning were the second day.
The next day, God said “Let the waters under the sky move to one place, and let dry land appear.” I imagine the oceans began to swish back and forth. Waves began to form, and the ocean made way for the dry land to form. The dry land was probably all in one place, instead of all spread out like it is today. It was one BIG piece of dry ground. There was no green grass, or flowers. No trees. Just many colors of clay and dirt. I imagine light sand was by the ocean, brown dirt was next to the sand, and dark red clay was in the middle. God called the dry land “Earth”, and the waters “Seas”, and that is what we still call them today! God looked at the Holy Spirit and Jesus. “It is good.” They all agreed. It was beautiful, even though it was simple. Dark blue oceans that got lighter the closer they were to the land. Light land that got darker the farther away from the ocean it was. So many beautiful colors.
Then God said something else. “Let there be grass in the earth. And herbs, and flowers. Let there also be trees that grow fruit. Each tree will have a different fruit.”
I imagine the earth started to creak and hum. The trees began to stretch out from the earth, groaning as they grew bigger and bigger. They reached high into the sky! Some of their trunks were big enough to drive a car through! (Even though there were no cars yet.)
The grass began to pop as it sprung up through the dirt. The flowers began to sleepily rise up, waking up as they grew taller, and finally opening their bright petals. There were flowers of every color! And fruit began to appear on the trees as they grew taller. The smell of peaches filled the air. And pears! Watermelon vines began to creep out from the ground, with the watermelons growing from pea-sized to full-grown. Bigger than your head!
God looked at the Holy Spirt and Jesus once again. They all agreed. It was good. So much beauty all around. This was all on the third day.
The next evening, God said “Let there be lights in outer space to divide day from night.” I imagine a loud grumble was heard, getting louder and louder as the sun began to flame hot and bright. The moon appeared above the earth. Stars began to appear one by one. They filled the black space like Christmas lights, shining brightly, making the colors of the solar system visible all across the big, black space. “The lights will be to mark the seasons of the year, and to keep track of the days and years.” To this day scientists look at the stars in the sky and can tell us when the first day of summer and winter are each year. Our calendar is based on when the earth moves around the sun! God made no mistakes in creating the sun, moon, and stars!
He also made no mistake in creating the grass, flowers, and trees before he created the sun!
God wanted us to know he only took 6 days to create everything. Some people say God created the earth over millions of years. If God created the plants first, could they have lasted a million years without the sun? No! They couldn’t even last 1 year! Plants need sun to live and grow. God made the plants first, so that we would know it was only one day until he made the sun, moon, and stars. God does nothing by accident! He told each star where to go, and even named them all! Psalm 147:4 says “He telleth the number of the stars; he calleth them all by their names.”
No one has ever been able to count the stars. There are just so many of them. God knows the exact number, though. He created them! At the end of that day, God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit agreed once more. It was good. The milky way was good. The galaxies of stars and planets scattered out over the wide, wide space were beautiful. More beautiful than words can describe. God’s own creation would one day show man how powerful, good, and wonderful God is!
That evening and morning were the fourth day.
Do you believe God created outer space? The Bible tells us so. Many people will try to tell you that it all started with a big bang, and God doesn’t exist. But the sun, moon, stars, plants, mountains, and ocean all tell us that everything was very carefully formed. The sun is exactly where it should be. It is not too close to earth so that we burn up, or too far away so that we freeze like ice pops! The many, many colors of flowers would be impossible without God to design them. God made a wonderful world! Do you believe this? Let us pray now and ask God to help us always believe His word that tells us He is the creator, even if the rest of the world denies it.