God said, “Let the waters bring forth swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the dome of the sky.” 21 So God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, of every kind, with which the waters swarm, and every winged bird of every kind. And God saw that it was good. 22 God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” 23 And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day.
24 And God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures of every kind: cattle and creeping things and wild animals of the earth of every kind.” And it was so. 25 God made the wild animals of the earth of every kind, and the cattle of every kind, and everything that creeps upon the ground of every kind. And God saw that it was good.
Have you tried to create? Maybe you have drawn on paper, painted on canvas or tried to compose the perfect photograph? An artist composing a picture considers many elements. What are the key ones? In the art of landscape photography, light seems to be the key element. When the light is right, the depth of a picture depicts a stunning interplay of the parts of the landscape. The great photo draws the eye into a rich, full scene using a balance of the foreground, middle-ground, background, horizon, and sky. With good light and scenery, the photographer focuses our interest by placement of key objects with the ‘Law of Thirds.’ The photographer places a central feature such as a mountain peak, a waterfall, or a bright, red-leafed, fall Maple Tree one third of the way from the edge of a picture, rarely in the center. I am not sure why this works, but study good landscape pictures and you will see this one-third placement used with constant success. Another way to draw the eye into a picture from the edge to the most important subject involves using lines such as fences, railroad tracks, or serpentine roads.
Many have found it helpful, if they have had any experience with painting or photography, to think of God as the Great Artist in understanding the creation of the earth. Consider God painting on a mural of grand scale the earth and its surrounding skies. He begins with a blank canvas. Notice that God creates the earth in a raw state of darkness, formlessness, and emptiness. We don’t know how long the earth stayed in this state of initial development. Maybe this initial creation took thousands or millions of years? Maybe it only took a snap of God’s fingers? We are not told how long it took. This was before there was a reckoning of time by days or nights. God had not created them yet. Nor do these first verses tell us how God created this strange, new world. Maybe there were cataclysmic events such as continental plates colliding and volcanoes erupting? That type of conjecture occupies the minds of scientists seeking clues to formative events in our present world. But it is important to realize that God created this three-dimensional mural so that He could form and fill it with light and life in amazing wonder to all.
Upon this mural God shines light. His brush is His voice. He merely speaks and the light shines forth from His infinite imagination. This light shines everywhere in a general sense, as there is not yet a specific source discernible for this light. This diffuse light shines during a portion of time and not during another portion, beginning the cycle of day and night.
After God introduced light in His creation, He begins creating at the horizon, where so many artists begin painting. God separates the waters of the sky from the waters of the earth. This boundary defines the mist and clouds of the heavens from the rolling oceans and bodies of water below. God turns His gaze upon the earth to continue defining its features. Land appears separating the bodies of water. Browns mix with shades of blue. Then the color green appears as the earth fills with vegetation. A pattern of general to more specific occurs with the vegetation. The green becomes a profusion of color as seed plants sprout an array of flowers. Fruit trees claim hillsides and river-bottoms. The many colors mix and match to present a diversity of plant vitality. What began as a formless, colorless void now throbs with life in the colors of the spectrum of light surrounding all creation.
God continues creating this marvelous mural. He returns to the areas of broad brushstrokes and brings out intricate detail. The general light takes on specific forms. In the daylight He speaks forth the bursting light of the sun. He dabs the night sky with lesser lights of stars and moon. In the air the flowers of the sky take wing. Feathered creatures of yellow, red, blue, green, black, white, or brown soar, dive and mate. The cliffs are theirs, as are the treetops. The sea life springs forth in response to the sound of God’s voice. Finned creatures breathe through gills. Monsters of the deep rise up to feed on the micro-plankton of the surface waters. The incredible variety that flows from the mind of God overwhelms the waters with vitality. God is not done. The land needs creatures to breed, multiply and fill the earth. Kind after kind, species after species of animal walks, runs, creeps, bounces, climbs and leaps upon the earth. Some animals God creates wild to run at will. Some He creates with mild tempers to be domesticated for other use by the greatest, most intricate creature yet to come from the dreams of God.
The sky, background, middle-ground, and foreground of our mural have been filled in with the breadth of God’s creative vision. Before we move on to the focal point of God’s creation, let us consider the pattern in which God proceeded to this point. From chaos comes harmony and order. After formlessness God separates and gathers according to greater variety. Where the emptiness reigned, God fills with swarming, swirling masses of life all in order of kind. Out of darkness God lights and colors the world. As God brought harmony from chaos then, so today and forever He continues to bring order and beauty to life. He does this with our world, our nations and our lives.
Below is a chart that outlines this work of harmony from chaos. Note the balance of days and the work that occurs from the general to the specific in each area. Those who appreciate the wonder of nature declare with God that all of this is good.
God’s Grand Mural: The Universe & The Earth
The Symmetry of God’s creation:
First Day & Fourth Day:
Light separated from darkness & then lights for night and day appear.
Day and night created & then sun, moon and stars created.
Second Day & Fifth Day:
Waters of heaven separated from waters of the earth & animals for the water created.
Sky created & then animals for the sky created.
Third Day & Sixth Day:
Dry ground separated from water & then animals for the ground created.
Land and seas separated with vegetation on the land & then the appearance of all types of animals on the land.
Humans created on the land.
Our eye has been drawn by the balance and rich color into the heart of this mural we call the earth. Here we notice the focal point of the mural. God creates humans by the most delicate of brush strokes.
26 Then God said, “Let us make humankind in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.” 27 So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God He created them; male and female He created them. 28 God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.” 29 God said, “See, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food. 30 And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird
