The Good Earth

The Good Earth

Bible:Genesis 1

God saw all that he had made, and it was very good (V.31).

Reading

While orbiting the moon in 1968, Apollo 8 astronaut Bill Anders described the crew’s close-up view of the moon. He called it “a foreboding horizon . . . a stark and unappetising-looking place.” Then the crew took turns reading to a watching world from Genesis 1:1-10. After Commander Frank Borman finished verse 10, “And God saw that it was good,” he signed off with, “God
bless all of you, all of you on the good earth.” The opening chapter of the Bible makes two things very clear: the universe, our earth and everything in it is God’s work. The phrase “and God said . . .” (GENESIS 1:3) is all the way through the chapter. The entire world we live in was created by the power of His words. The Bible reinforces the message of Genesis 1 in every page: behind all of history, there is God. The other thing that we are meant to see from this chapter is that what God
made was good. Again and again we read: “And God saw that it was good” (V.4). Much has changed since that first moment God created the world. Genesis 1 describes the world as God wanted it, before anything got broken. Whatever goodness we see around us today is a faint echo of the perfect world God created. The Apollo 8 astronauts saw earth as a brightly coloured ball hanging alone in space. It looked at once awesome and fragile. It looked like the view from
Genesis 1.

HOLY, HOLY, HOLY IS THE Lord ALMIGHTY;
THE WHOLE EARTH IS FULL OF HIS GLORY. ISAIAH 6:3

Youth Edition – Our Daily Bread Ministries