Solid Ground

“Then God said, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear”; and it was so. And God called the dry land Earth, and the gathering together of the waters He called Seas. And God saw that it was good.” (Genesis 1:9, 10)

God began the third day by fashioning a home for man. We are not sea creatures, as much as we may love the roar of ocean waves crashing upon the shore, or as much as we may love to spend a day out in the boat, line in the water, today’s catch in the bucket. Every kid who loves to swim also loves, at some point, to get back to the side of the pool. I always wondered which was worse for the condemned in “The Man without a Country”: to be without a nation to call home, or never to set foot on dry land again the rest of his life. Thank God for creating dry land, fixed land, solid ground beneath our feet, the kind upon which one can stand upright.

God repeats Himself with the joy of creation. In Noah’s day the world is taken back to its all-watery stage, and He reforms it, re-creates it, slowly pulling the waters back again to reveal the new world, a new home for humanity. In the days of Moses, when God takes Abraham’s seed from the old world of slavery to a new world fashioned by Jehovah just for them, God pulls back the waters of the Red Sea, and a nation is born again walking through on dry land. When Joshua takes the helm and God is ready to bring the children of Israel into the Promised Land, God commands the waters of the Jordan as He did the waters at creation—dry land appears—and they march-step, amazed, into the new home God has prepared for them.

Thank God for dirt. Everything is made from it, including you and me. When God creates man, He does it by taking a handful of dust, swept up from the dirt floor of Adam’s new home, fashioning “dry land” into something even better, breathing the wind of God into this newly formed “world” of dirt and water. With every new “man-child” born, the waters are pulled back once again and a whole new world appears—one solid and dry, full of air for the lungs and ground to lie on, crawl on, learn to walk on, run on, ride bikes on.

When God re-creates us in Jesus Christ, we also come through the water—through the waters of baptism—and as we emerge like dry land out of the seas, we are a new world, a new creation in Christ. The old world unformed has passed away; behold, all things have become new. In this new dirt, this new man, full of the Holy Spirit, every good thing can now grow and bear fruit.


“Lord God, Creator of the Earth and the Seas, and all that is in them, we give You thanks for the wonders of the world You have created for us, including Your gift to us of dry land. We give You thanks for dirt in which to grow our food and shelter, the beauty of flowers and shrubs and every green thing. We give You thanks for mountains and valleys, marshlands and deserts, city parks, backyards, and old dirt roads. Grant to us this day that we might reflect Your glory, living and walking and working and playing on the Earth You have given us as our home. And recreate us in the image of the Second Adam, our Lord Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen.”