[MUSIC PLAYING] It is difficult for mortal minds to comprehend the majesty of the Creation. It is much easier for us to think about good things to eat or fun things to do. But I would like to stretch our minds to think of things beyond our easy grasp. The creation of man and woman was wondrous and great. So was the creation of the earth as their mortal dwelling place. Each phase of the Creation was well planned before it was accomplished. Scripture tells us that the Lord God created all things spiritually before they were naturally upon the face of the earth. The physical Creation itself was staged through ordered periods of time. In Genesis and in Moses, those periods are called days, but in the book of Abraham, each period is referred to as a time. Whether termed a day, a time, or an age, each phase was a period between two identifiable events, a division of eternity.

Period one included the creation of atmospheric heavens and physical earth, culminating in the emergence of light from darkness. In period two, the waters were divided between the surface of the earth and its atmospheric heavens. Provision was made for clouds and rain to give life to all that would later dwell upon the earth. In period three, plant life began. The earth was organized to bring forth grass, herbs, trees, and vegetation, each growing from its own seed. Period four was a time of further development. Lights in the expense of heaven were organized so there could be seasons and other means of measuring time. During this period, the sun, the moon, the stars, and the earth were placed in proper relationship to one another. The sun with its vast stores of hydrogen was to serve as a giant furnace to provide light and heat for the earth and life upon it. In period five, fish, fowl, and every living creature were added. They were made fruitful and able to multiply in the sea and on the earth, each after its own kind. In the sixth period, creation of life continued. The beasts of the earth were made after their kind, cattle after their kind, and everything which creepeth upon the earth, again, after its own kind. Then the gods counselled together and said, "Let us go down and form man in our image, after our likeness." So the gods went down to organize man in their own image, in the image of the gods to form they him, male and female to form they them. Thus Adam and Eve were formed, and they were blessed to be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the seas and over the fowl of the air and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. The seventh period was designated as a time of rest.

I testify that the earth and all life upon it are of divine origin. The Creation did not happen by chance. It did not come ex nihilo, out of nothing, and human minds and hands, able to build buildings and create computers, are not accidental. It is God who made us and not we ourselves. We are His people. The Creation itself testifies of a Creator.

Grand as it is, planet earth is part of something even grander, that great plan of God. Simply summarized, the earth was created that families might be.