“O LORD, you are my God; I will exalt you and praise your name, for in perfect faithfulness you have done marvelous things, things planned long ago.” Isaiah 25:1

How long is a day? We usually think of a day as being twenty-four hours long. But Psalm 95:8 (King James) speaks of the “day of temptation” in the wilderness, and we know that it is speaking of the forty years which the Israelites spent in the wilderness.

The apostle Peter wrote that “with the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day” (2 Peter 3:8). One of the definitions for “day” given in the dictionary says, “any particular amount of time.” We see then that many different amounts of time can be called a “day.” Thousands of years were needed for the work of each creative day.

During the second creative day God made the firmament—the air around the earth. Air would be needed in the future when humans and animals were created and they would need to be able to breathe. The earth, we believe, had rings of water and minerals around it, some of which would fall to the earth and become oceans, lakes, and rivers. The remaining waters probably have become clouds. In between would have been the clearer, drier air (called an atmosphere or firmament).

Day Two ended with the earth prepared for lower forms of plant life. Step by step God was preparing the earth to be a home for creatures not yet created and for an immense number of plants and lower animals. His plans and purposes are intelligent and orderly and show a wonderful design.

Of all the nine planets in our solar system only the earth has life-giving oxygen. If we go beyond about four miles up into the atmosphere, we need another way to get oxygen or we die. The astronauts always carry their own “atmosphere” with them.

Let us give thanks to our great heavenly Father and his dear son! How wisely and carefully they planned every detail of creation.

Only the earth has sufficient oxygen to sustain life.

Link to supplemental lesson worksheet: www.blessedbible.com/linked/a2z-lesson-3.pdf