"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth."--_Gen. 1:1._
IN the Bible we are told God made the earth we live on. Sunday is the
earth's birthday, for on the first day of the week the Creation began.
The world was one mass--dark, empty, and shapeless--till God made the
light by His Word, and saw the light was good. Without light we could
not live: even the very trees and flowers would die. When we have been
in the dark how glad we are to see light come back, even if it be only
one grey line beginning in the sky! This shows how blessed is this
gift. It was good, too, that we should have quiet dark night for rest
and stillness.
The second great change enclosed the earth in an outer ball of air,
which we call the sky or firmament. That is the deep blue into which
we look up and up. The mist and fog rise up from the earth and make
the clouds that take strange shapes, sometimes dark and full of rain
to water the earth, sometimes shining white, or pink and golden with
morning or evening light.
The third great change was, that water filled the deep hollows of the
earth, while the hills rose up dry above them, with rivers and streams
running down their slopes into the deep seas below. God did not leave
the land bare and stony: He clothed it with green fresh plants and
herbs, with leaves and flowers, and trees to give us their fruit and
wood, and filled even the sea with plants that can live under water.