DAY SIX - BIG PICTURE IN A YEAR - THE CREATION
“And there was evening, and there was morning, the first day.”
Genesis 1: 5
Reading: Genesis 1: 1-5
On Day 1 of Creation, we encounter a watery, formless morass suspended in the darkness and the void of space. From the Biblical account, it appears that there was no sun, stars, moon or any other planets.
The earth was ‘formless’ – it had no definition or shape yet. The earth was ‘empty’ – there was nothing in or on it. It was dark, it was deep. This passage almost reads like the earth was an unformed concept in God’s mind..not yet fully imagined. But then..the Spirit of God began to ‘hover over’ this formless, empty, dark, undefined morass. On Day 1 of Creation, God made four important things.
- Time. You may be surprised to learn that God had to create ‘time’ itself. ‘Before’ then, even time did not exist. Only God existed. He is eternal. So ‘before’ the beginning (Genesis 1:1), there was no time.
- Space. God had to create space. This was so there would be somewhere for God to put everything after He had created it.
- Matter. God also had to create the earth. To begin with He created the stuff that makes up the earth, and lots and lots of water. God created all this material, and everything else too, from nothing.
- Light. In the beginning, it was very, very dark—inky black—everywhere. So, early on Day 1, having made time, space and matter, God then created light. How did He do this? He just said, ‘Let there be light!’ and there was light. This light was not the sun, the sun is simply a light bearer.
The fact that light and dark were separated, and there was evening and day, shows us that the earth started rotating at this point.
Prayer
I love You Lord, it still fills me with awe to consider You as Creator – and it always will.
For the family
Explain
Explain briefly what happened on the first day of Creation.
Engage
Draw an outline of a rainbow and let younger kids have fun colouring in the 7 different colours (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet) while the older kids watch
about light. When we understand that light is energy and much of it is invisible, we can easily understand how God made light on Day 1 but only the light-bearers, the sun, moon and stars, on Day 4.
Older, smart-alek kids
Bamboozle their brains by watching
together
