Creation: In the Beginning

Genesis 1:1-2 (MSG) states, "First this: God created the Heavens and Earth -- all you see, all you don't see. Earth was a soup of nothingness, a bottomless emptiness, an inky blackness. God's Spirit brooded like a bird above the  watery abyss."

One of my favorite hymns about Creation is The Spacious Firmament on High. Joseph Haydn composed the music in 1798. Joseph Addison added the lyrics in 1812. Ponder the verses and the photos that follow as they aptly describe what was In the Beginning.

The spacious firmament on high, with all the blue ethereal sky,

And spangled heav'ns, a shining frame, their great Original proclaim:

Th'unwearied sun from day to day does his Creator's power display,

And publishes to ev'ry land the work of an almighty hand.

Soon as the evening shades prevail, the moon takes up the wondrous tale,

And nightly to the list'ning earth repeats the story of her birth;

While all the stars that round her burn, and all the planets in their turn,

Confirm the tidings as they roll, and spread the truth from pole to pole.

What tho in solemn silence all move round this dark terrestrial ball?

What tho no real voice nor sound amid their radiant orbs be found?

In reason't ear they all rejoice, and utter forth a glorious voice,

Forever singing as they shine, "The hand that made us is divine."