And God said, “Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear.” And it was so. God called the dry ground “land,” and the gathered waters he called “seas.” And God saw that it was good.

Then God said, “Let the land produce vegetation: seed–bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds.” And it was so. The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the third day. Genesis 1:9-13

Photo © Walter Feldman

What a gift that God separated the waters from the land and appointed the Earth on which we live! How can we ever thank God for the divine gathering of waters into the diversity of all the raindrops in the world, all the snowflakes and hailstones, the fogs and mists, all the creeks and ponds and puddles, all the glaciers and snowpacks, the streams and rivers and fjords, the wells and underground springs, the lakes and the bays and the mammoth oceans. How amazing it is that water in general keeps its boundaries so that vegetation can flourish.

And such a variety of vegetation! … At no time in the whole year is there not at least one kind of flower blossoming. Someflowers develop into fruit—apples, cherries, strawberries, raspberries, loganberries; others into multiple kinds of vegetables or seeds that produce grasses or shrubs or trees.

How much the trinity is to be honored for the waters and land and vegetation! Let us thank God that plants bear seeds and fruits according to their kinds, that we can expect bananas from banana trees and cantaloupes from their seeds in the ground.

O come, let us worship.
We praise You, Creator, for all that is good.

Marva J. Dawn, In the Beginning, God, pg 37.