Genesis 1:1-5, NIRV

The Beginning

1In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. ²The earth didn’t have any shape. And it was empty. There was darkness over the surface of the waves. At that time, the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

³God said, “Let there be light.” And there was light. ⁴God saw that the light was good. He separated the light from the darkness. ⁵God called the light “day.” He called the darkness “night.” There was evening, and there was morning. It was day one.

Message:

Here we are at the beginning of a new year! Did you have a great New Year’s Eve and Day? Since we are at the beginning of a new year today, let’s look at the beginning of the Bible. Does anyone know the first book in our Bible? (Allow children to answer.) That’s correct! The first book is Genesis, which means beginning. Let me read today’s scripture passage to you.

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. ²The earth didn’t have any shape. And it was empty. There was darkness over the surface of the waves. At that time, the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

These are the first words in Genesis. Genesis is a good name for this book in our Bible, for it tells us about the beginning of everything — the stars and heaven and our beautiful planet Earth.

Genesis 1 is to be read like a poem that reminds us God is the one who created everything. God is the one who made light shine when there had been only darkness. In the verses that follow these, we continue to read about how God created the sky, sun, moon, stars, dry ground, and every living thing.

I have an idea! Throughout the next few weeks, let’s create our own poem. Our poem will help us remember important teachings each week as we worship.

Let’s begin our poem,

In the beginning, there was no shape for the earth’s covering.
But God’s Spirit was hovering.
It was dark. And God named the darkness “night.”
But, God wanted more, so God separated the darkness from the light.
The light was named “day,” as God thought it should.
When God saw this, God said, “This is good!”

We will continue to add to our poem each week. I am excited to see where our poem takes us. This poem will be a good way to remember what we can learn through worshiping God.

It is good to remember any time of the year what we learn from Genesis. God is our creator; and when God created, God called all creation good!

Prayer:

God, you are the creator of all. Thank you for the light and the darkness. Thank you for the sun, moon, stars, and planets. Thank you for the oceans, mountains, and every living thing. Thank you, God, that we can look at your creation and see that it is so good! Amen.