Design Your Own Creation Of The World Artwork

At youth group last week, we showed our teens this beautiful serving tray from Israel, where the artist depicted the seven days of creation. Each day has its own section, and the colors just astound me. 

Then we gave them each a piece of paper divided in seven, and read them each day of Creation from Genesis 1-2. Their creative challenge was to fill that one strip with their own artwork for the Scripture they were hearing.

While they were drawing, we asked them three questions pertaining to that day. Some of them have clear-cut answers, some are open for interpretation, and some are rhetorical. Their answers were incredibly interesting, eye-opening at times, and purposely laugh-out-loud at other times.

I invite you to join me for the same art project today. Grab a piece of paper, divide it into seven vertical sections, and keep reading to create your very own Creation of the World artwork and answer some thought-provoking questions.

Read Genesis 1:1-5

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day. Genesis 1:1-5

Draw your Day 1.

Question #1. Why do you think God only used words to create?
Question #2. Why do you think God said the light was good? 
Question #3. Why do you think light was all He created the first day?

Read Genesis 1:6-8

And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so. And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day. Genesis 1:6-8

Draw your Day 2.

Question #4. Why is water important?
Question #5. Is there still a firmament today?
Question #6. Why do you think heaven was a Day 2 creation?

Read Genesis 1:9-13

And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto 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 called he Seas: and God saw that it was good. And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so. And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good. And the evening and the morning were the third day. Genesis 1:9-13

Draw your Day 3.

Question #7. Why is this the first day God say it’s good?
Question #8. Do you think grass and seeds and herbs looked then like they do now?
Question #9. What does “after his kind” mean?

Read Genesis 1:14-19

And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years: And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so. And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also. And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good. And the evening and the morning were the fourth day. Genesis 14-19

Draw your Day 4.

Question #10. Why wasn’t darkness left dark - why did God hang lights in it?
Question #11. Why is there no such thing as a “flash-dark”?
Question #12. Do stars shine literally? (No, they reflect these two lights)

Read Genesis 1:20-23

And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven. And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth. And the evening and the morning were the fifth day. Genesis 1:20-23

Draw your Day 5.

Question #13. Why are fish and birds first, and why are they together?
Question #14. Why is the whale the only animal named here, and why is it first?
Question #15. Why would God bless animals and tell them to make baby animals?

Read Genesis 1:24-31

And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so. And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good. And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so. And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day. Genesis 1:24-31

Draw your Day 6.

Question #16. Why are cattle the only animals mentioned by name?
Question #17. What does “in God’s image, in our likeness” mean?
Question #18. Why is this the only day that is VERY good?

Read Genesis 2:1-3

Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made. Genesis 2:1-3

Draw your Day 7.

Question #19. Did God really rest like you and I do?
Question #20. How did God know that those were all the things that needed to be made?
Question #21. How should we spend our Sabbath, our Sunday, to honor God and His creation?