DAY TWENTY EIGHT - BIG PICTURE IN A YEAR - THE CREATION

“I give you every seed-bearing plant..”

Genesis 1: 29

Reading: Exodus 16; Hebrews 4: 10, 11

A significant part of God being “with” us is that He provides for us. Provision was built in to the way that God created everything. We saw this when we examined the meaning of God resting on the seventh day.

We are living in the seventh day, are we not? And even more so now that we have our ‘rest’ in Christ. Our ‘work’ now is to enter in to the rest provided for in Christ, to believe in the goodness, salvation and provision of Heaven.

The account of Genesis 1 makes it clear that this was God’s intention from the start. He planned for humanity to enjoy the beauty, abundance and fruitfulness of creation. In the idyllic setting of the Garden of Eden, the first humans found a rich, fertile place, and humanity was intended to prosper in every sense. God provides an abundance of resources and means for humans to flourish.

God has made a marvellously complete provision for His creation. The world of nature is full of the most astonishing evidences of the care of God. How is it that certain birds can fly with an unerring instinct halfway around the world and find a tiny pinpoint of land in the middle of the ocean, though this is the first time they have made the flight? How is it that certain varieties of spiders have learned how to capture bubbles of air and build nests under water, bringing those bubbles down from the surface and thus creating tiny diving bells in which they rear their young? Who taught them to do a strange thing like that?

Creation is full of the intelligence and evidence and provision of God. Even in the barrenness of the wilderness, the people of Israel found daily provision from God, in the form of manna (Exodus 16). The abundant wealth of God’s creation is discovered further on in the biblical narrative by the people of Israel, when they finally reach the Promised Land. It is a land “flowing with milk and honey,” rich with all the ingredients needed to live according to God’s design. From the beginning, God perfectly provisioned the world for humans to thrive.

Prayer

Thank You for Your faithful provision Lord.

For the family

Explain

Explain that everything we have, including life and breath, itself is a gift from God. Explain that He always wants us to know Him as provider.

Engage

Encourage your kids to see God’s provision everywhere. Encourage them to ask God for what they need, and thereby experience His provision to them personally.