Let There Be Light: Devotions From Time of GraceSample

Let there be continents and oceans

Day #2: God moves some water up. Day #3: God moves some water sideways. He spoke, and although there was still a lot of mud on the earth, now there were clearly demarcated bodies of water and vast areas of dry land: “God said, ‘Let the water under the sky be gathered into one place, and let dry ground appear.’ And it was so. God called the dry ground ‘land’ and the gathered waters he called ‘seas’” (Genesis 1:9,10).

The concentration of all that water in the oceans (71 percent of earth’s surface) gives our planet its distinctive look from space. Apollo astronauts in orbit, gazing at earth from their capsule, started calling it the “blue planet.” Oceans are busy places, always in motion above and below the surface.

The land masses were busy places too, for God’s creative word caused every manner of flora to burst forth. Each species had its own way of producing seeds so that there would be a next generation. Each species was suited to the climate God had put there. Each species added to the shade, food, and beauty of the new land mass. God’s unique design put fresh water within the land masses in the form of lakes and rivers, while the vaster oceans are salty. Both types of water are home to their own abundance of aquatic plants.

God liked what he saw and called it good. Do you like it too?