The Story of Creation

TEXT: Genesis 1:1-25

How could Mr. Williams not believe? Bailee’s perplexity led her to read again the story of creation from her Bible.

Questions raced through Bailee’s mind as she gathered her textbooks and left the science room. Did Mr. Williams believe the theory he had been talking about that morning? Did he really think the earth had once been a molten mass that gradually cooled off? How could he believe that animals evolved from a tiny piece of matter in the water—where did that tiny piece of matter come from? Did he honestly accept the thought that man had gradually developed from a monkey-like creature?

Through the rest of the afternoon, Bailee couldn’t get her mind off the subject. When she got home from school, she went straight to her room. Tossing her coat over a chair, she sat down on the bed and reached for the Bible on her night stand. Opening it to the first verse, she read: “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.”

That was better! It seemed so much easier to believe that God created the heaven and the earth than to believe some freak explosion happened in space, and millions of years later the resulting mass became what we call Earth.

In the second verse, something else made sense to her. As the earth was formless, void, and filled with darkness, the Spirit of God moved on the waters. That’s how she had felt last summer at youth camp. Inside of her had been darkness, and there hadn’t seemed to be any form to her life. As she sat in the chapel service, she had felt the Spirit of God move. That night she had asked Jesus to change her life, and He did! She felt like a whole new person. Bailee knew the Spirit of God could move, so when the Bible said the Spirit moved on the waters, that made perfect sense to her!

Somehow, it seemed exciting to know that it was God who said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. It wasn’t just an accident, a sudden combination of gases, or whatever. It was God who had engineered the whole universe and ordered it into existence.

Bailee read on. God made the firmament. He wanted a sky in His plan, and so on the second day He created the heavens.

The third day, God made the oceans and dry land. God made the grass to grow, the herbs to produce seeds, and fruit trees to grow with seeds inside the fruit. He planned ahead so trees would produce the seeds to grow more trees. No way could that be an accident! Only God could create things with such order.

Bailee read that God made the stars, moon, and sun on the fourth day. How great to realize that God arranged these “for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years.” It was good to know that God made the sun to light and warm the earth. As Bailee remembered lying in the sun at the beach, she was glad she could enjoy God's creation.

The fifth day, God made the fish and birds. Some fish were made to live near the surface of the sea, and some near the bottom. God made big fish, such as sharks and tuna, to travel the seas. He made others to stay in one area. Some were to live in freshwater lakes and rivers. Still others, like the salmon, could live in both fresh water and salt water. There were birds to live in the mountains and birds to live in the jungles. Could all that variety have just happened? Oh, no!

On the sixth day, God made all the cattle and creeping things and beasts. God created them to multiply and bring forth after their kind. Bailee chuckled to herself as she thought that she had never heard of a cow having a foal for a baby, or a cat having a puppy! It was just like the Bible said, every “living creature after his kind.” The cows and the horses and the puppies weren’t constantly changing or evolving into different kinds of animals either.

As Bailee read the twenty-fifth verse of the first chapter of Genesis, she felt a good, solid assurance in her mind. The verse said, “. . . and God saw that it was good.” That’s just the way she felt too.

Everything about creation was good. It was orderly, and definitely no accident! As Bailee closed her Bible she told herself, “I’m so glad I believe it just that way!”