The Good Earth

"Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.  And God said, 'Let there be light,' and there was light.  God saw that the light was good, and He separated the light from the darkness,"  -Genesis 1:2-4

In today's Our Daily Bread Philip Yancey writes about Apollo 8's orbit around the moon in 1968.  The crew took turns reading the first 10 verses of Genesis which ends with, "And God saw that it was good."  Commander Frank Borman signed off with, "God bless all of you, all of you on the good Earth."  Yancey writes, "The Apollo 8 astronauts saw Earth as a brightly colored ball hanging alone in space.  It looked at once awesomely beautiful and fragile.  It looked like the view from Genesis 1."

I will never go into outer space, but just my experience of seeing the sun seemingly rising out of the water and lighting the sky in such amazing color, fills me with the same awe the astronauts experienced looking down upon the earth.  It is far too easy for us earthlings to take our good Earth for granted.  Yes, God did "grant" the Earth to us, but with instructions to take care of it.  Are you doing your part?

I am grateful for how beautiful God made the Earth.  He could have provided just the basics--food and water--but He went beyond what was necessary for subsistence.  Instead He created a beautiful Earth and gave us our five senses so that we could experience His awesome creation.