Everything had a beginning but nothing began by itself. Just think about it. A mountain did not begin by itself, nor did a flower or a tree. The moon and stars did not begin by themselves. There is no thing and no one person that can begin their own life by themselves. No thing and no person can make themselves for to make something a person or thing must already exist, so if they don’t exist how can they make themselves? There is nothing that you can see, hear or touch that came by itself. So how did everything begin?
It is really very simple, for if no thing or person made themselves they must have been made by Someone who had no beginning, someone who was always there. That Someone we call God.
In the very beginning there was nothing, just God. There was no day or night, no earth or sky, no sun, moon or stars, no land or sea, no trees, no flowers, no fish, no birds, no crops, no animals and no people. So how did everything begin? Since no one was there at the beginning to tell us how God made the world and everything in it, including people, there is no one but God who can tell us.
Now, this is the good news. God has told us for he wants everyone to know how and why he made the world and everything in it. The first book of the bible, God’s Word, what God tells us, is called Genesis which means beginning. There, when you learn how to read, you will find out what God says about how and why he made everything. If you can already read you can read it for yourself but if you are still learning then perhaps your mum and dad will read it for you.
God said, ‘Let there be light and there was light. If there is no light how can we see. God wanted his world to be seen. He wanted the world to be seen by us, you and me, but not before the world was made. From the beginning God had a purpose. His purpose was to make a beautiful world without sin or death and then to create human beings, in his own image. He wanted them to know his love for them by making everything good. And he wanted them to be good, and to live forever. So he made the world good. There was nothing in the world that was bad. This is how he created the world ready to put Adam and Eve, our first parents in it.
The scene was now set for God’s star and planetary miracle, without which there would be no daytime or nighttime. God’s purpose was to divide the day from the night so that we might work in the day time and sleep at night, so that the workshop and bedroom might have equal importance, not just to divide work from rest but to unite family life in love and happiness with time for each other. God created starlight and daylight. He created the stars to shine at night and the sun to shine during the day.
The purpose of creating the stars and sun and moon was not just for dividing night and day but for signs and seasons, and for days and years. God’s purpose was also to speak to us through his stars and planets. There is a language of the stars and planets. For those who study the stars prayerfully, God reveals signs of future events and his love for mankind. And God saw that everything he had made was good and full of his love and design. And the evening and the morning were the fourth day. And so on this day God made the twenty four hour clock by which we tell the time: the light of the sun and the rotation of the earth on its axis and its journey around the sun.
The earth was still lifeless. The raw elements of matter were now created and formed to give to support life. There was no life in themselves but they were formed to make life possible on earth. God now created living creatures in the sea and air; he created sea creatures and fish in the sea, and birds that fly over the earth. He created all these creatures after their kind and species, for they were all different and they multiplied greatly according to their morphology. And God blessed them and said ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas and let the birds multiply on the earth.’ (Genesis 1:22) And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.
It is important to recognise that God first made sea creatures and birds because the birds were necessary for grass, herbs and trees to grow and have flowers and fruit. So to provide food for animals these had to be created first to pollinate the grasses, vegetables, herbs and fruit trees.
The next stage in God’s creation was to create animal life and mankind. He created animal life after its kind. Every beast, cattle and every creeping thing he created after their kind. No species of animal or beast were crossed with other species or were mongrels. Finally, God spoke to his Son, ‘Let us make man in our own image, after our likeness and let them have dominion over all the earth and every living things in sea and land. (Genesis 1:26) And so they created man, male and female, and told them to rule over the earth. And God said, ‘I have given you every herb bearing seed and every tree that bears fruit; these shall be your meat.’ And to the beasts of the field and the birds of the air, God said, ‘I have given you every green herb for meat.’ And God saw everything he had made and it was very good. This is how God made everything and there was nothing bad in all that he had made.