Create!

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Read: Genesis 1:1-13
TO CHEW ON: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." (Genesis 1:1)

What does it mean to create:
1. Arrange things in an original way?
2. Cause something to come into existence?
3. Change something so it doesn’t look like the original thing?

I’m sure you’ll agree it’s 2. We do call people who put things together in interesting ways creative, but to create means to bring something into existence which didn’t exist before.



People explain how the sun, moon, stars and earth came into existence in different ways. Some believe it was through the big bang – a cosmic explosion – and that all life evolved from a single-cell after that. (In order for this explanation to make sense, we need to go back to that first step and ask who made the things that exploded and that single cell in the first place?)

Other people believe that God created the universe but not in six, twenty four-hour days. Instead they say God used the big bang (a cosmic explosion) and evolution to bring the universe to how it is today.

Still others take the Bible story of creation literally. They believe that God created the universe in six twenty four-hour days.

The Bible doesn’t tell us whether God created the heavens and earth in an instant of time, or over eons. But it does tell us that in the beginning God created (or brought into existence from nothing) the heavens and the earth.

PRAYER: Thank You that You are Creator God. Amen.

SECOND HELPING: Create versus Destroy

We call the things that God created - things that we can see, touch, smell, taste and feel - matter. People can't create matter out of nothing. If people can’t create it, can they destroy it (make something that exists disappear so that it no longer exists)? Find out from books or the internet:

1. What happens to matter when you burn it?

2. What happens to matter when you explode it?

3. What happens to matter when you evaporate it?

4. What other ways might people try to destroy matter?

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Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.