HeartFelt Kids Bible

Before there was anything, there was God. That is the hardest part of this story and the most important one, so it goes first and it goes slowly. There was no sky above and no ground below. There was no light and no dark, because there was nothing yet for the light to shine on. And into all that nothing, God spoke.

He did not build the light or find it somewhere. He said it, and it was there. That is the first thing this story wants a child to notice. God separated the light from the dark and gave them names, the way you name something that belongs to you. Morning came, and evening came, and that was the very first day the world ever had.

Then God stretched out the sky like a roof over everything, and pushed the waters back until dry land rose up in the middle of them. He called the dry ground earth and the gathered waters seas. There were beaches nobody had walked on yet, and mountains nobody had ever seen. All of it was waiting.

God told the land to grow, and it grew. Soft grass and small flowers and trees with fruit hanging in them, and inside every single one he put seeds. That is the quiet clever part. He did not just make one apple tree. He made an apple tree that could make more apple trees, for as long as the world lasted.

Whales rolled over in the deep water and small silver fish went past in clouds. Birds found the sky and filled it with noise. Out on the land came every animal you can think of and a good many you cannot, big slow ones and quick small ones, and God looked at all of them and was pleased.

Last of all God made people, and he made them like himself, able to love and to choose and to make things of their own. Then God looked at the whole world, the light and the sea and the trees and the animals and the people, and he said it was very good. And on the seventh day he rested, and he made that day special too.