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. — Genesis 1:31
Text: Genesis 1:31
Objects: a beach ball and sandals
Summary: God created a perfect world. His creation was very good.
Are you glad to be finished with another school year? (Yes!) Now that you are on break for a few weeks, you will likely play around home and perhaps even take a trip to someplace nice on vacation. I love the summertime. I like to play outdoors. As a young boy, my family used to go on vacation during the summer. Sometimes we would go to the oceanfront and play on the beach. [Show beach ball and sandals.) It was always fun to build castles in the sand and watch the waves beat against them. We would look for pretty sea shells and collect them to decorate the walls of the sand castle. Then we would stop and admire the castle we had built and say, “That looks good.” That reminds me of a story about how God created a perfect world.
The story today is from Genesis, the first book of the Bible. (Read text.) God took six days to create a perfect world. At the end of the sixth day he looked around at all that he had made and it was very good. God put man in charge of the world he made and gave man power over all the creatures in the sea, air, and land. God created all the food we would need too. God made rivers with fresh water to drink. He gave us clean air and water, plenty to eat, and a family. God thought of every thing that was needed in a perfect world.
A lot has happened to the world since then. Man didn’t do a good job in taking care of things. It got so bad after a while that God decided the world needed an extreme makeover: the world-wide flood. And God gave us the rainbow as His promise that he would not destroy the earth by water again. It was not the perfect world that needed the makeover; it was our imperfect heart.
We needed to learn how to love God and each other. So God sent His perfect Son into our messed up world to help us. All who believe on the Lord Jesus will get an extreme makeover too. It is a makeover of the heart. It changes you from the inside so that you can love God and people. It is really only until Jesus returns that we will get things back to the way they were in a perfect world. But for now, let’s take care of every thing that God has given us in the world, including each other.
Let us pray: Dear Lord Jesus, thank you for the beauty of a perfect world. Create in me a clean heart that I may care for it and the people who share it. Amen.
©2008 by Jim Kerlin. All rights reserved.