The Third Day - The Waters are Gathered and Dry Land Appears, it is Good!
9And God said, “Let the waters under the sky be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.” And it was so. 10God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good. 11Then God said, “Let the earth put forth vegetation: plants yielding seed, and fruit trees of every kind on earth that bear fruit with the seed in it.” And it was so. 12The earth brought forth vegetation: plants yielding seed of every kind, and trees of every kind bearing fruit with the seed in it. And God saw that it was good. 13And there was evening and there was morning, the third day.
Finally the forces of chaos have been ordered. The Waters no longer cover all of the base of the dome, but are gathered in one place and, as a result, dry land appears. Now, for the first time in all of creation God pronounces it “Good.”
The Universe, the Earth are created good. Unfortunately, today, some misguided Christian Theologies believe that creation is bad and that someday we will be “raptured” out of this “evil” world into a perfect heaven. Yet the testimony of Scripture is clear, God created and proclaimed the world “good.”
Other ancient mythologies of creation always saw the world as something less then good or even evil. They even thought this world was ruled by evil spirits they needed to escape from. Thus, believers in these other world views, would try to rid themselves of this material world in order that they might ascend into the perfection of some spiritual, ghostly heaven.
The Creation stories of Genesis depart from these other views of creation by proclaiming that there is one God, who is the Creator of a Good Earth.
I just finished watching the Disney movie “WALL -E” where people have left a polluted earth to sail in ships in the cosmos and who now live lives of artificial joy. To me the movie represent what most people would consider “heaven,” an eternal cruise where every selfish need is taken care of and all passion/romance has disappeared from life. Fortunately that is not the reality of life.
I am just beginning to learn to sail a Catamaran and I can tell you that when I am on the open ocean and “flying a hull” it is heaven to me. Yet, after several hours of sailing it is a relief to get to port. Perhaps life is like this, we are to enjoy the goodness of creation, and at the end of life it is like sailing into port. (Psalm 107:30) Yet, as Christians we have the promise that death is not the end of real life and someday we will sail again.
This Thanksgiving we are called to give thanks to our Creator. We give praise to God’s good creation by singing a verse from that old hymn “For the Beauty of the Earth,” -
“For the beauty of the earth, for the glory of the skies, for the love which from our birth over and around us lies: Lord of all to thee we raise this our hymn of grateful praise.”
Peace,
Pastor John