THE WORD: Everything that he had made

PHOTO CAPTION: “The Garden of Eden” by Thomas Cole (1828). (Public Domain)

God created a world full of movement in his first five days of creation. Ocean currents flowed, breezes blew, fish swam and bird flew. But, God’s plan wasn’t set in motion until the sixth day. The creatures, creepers and beasts were first, but the finale was man — male and female. They were created in the image of God and charged with dominion over all the earth and to be fruitful.

The work of creation established many unwritten elements of our world and workings. The Bible does not mention the creation of the force of gravity, the laws of motion or thermodynamics, or principle of buoyancy. But, the creation process that included the seen and unseen aspects of our universe set in motion a natural order that continues to sustain us. Following the creation of man, the Old Testament contains over 100 prophecies that foretold events that happened in the life of Jesus Christ hundreds of years before they happened.

GENESIS 1:20-23

24 And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so. 25 And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. 27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. 28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

29 And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. 30 And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so. 31 And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.