A very, very long time ago, a great deal longer ago than you or I can count, for the Bible tells us that it was "In the beginning," God made the heaven and the earth. The earth on which we live now, where there are trees and beautiful flowers, and horses and cows, as well as men and women and children, was quite empty then. It was always dark there in those days, and all the ground was covered with water! You can think how desolate it must have been: nothing to be seen but mist and darkness! But God had not forgotten this earth of ours. And we read another thing in the Bible about "In the beginning," and that is, that Jesus the Son of God was "in the beginning with God." That is such a comforting thought! Before our world was prepared for us to live on, Jesus was with God in Heaven! You children love your fathers and mothers very much; you like to go on their messages, and to do what you can to help them, do you not? The Lord Jesus loved to do God's will, and to carry out all His Father gave Him to do. And what do you think God did give Him to do? Perhaps you have begun to guess! God His Father gave Him the wonderful work of making our earth, and preparing it all for us to live on! It says in the Bible "All things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made." So the first thing that happened when God began to prepare this earth for men to live on, was that God's Spirit came and "brooded" over the dark waters that covered the earth. You wonder what that means? Perhaps you have seen a hen sitting day after day on the nest of eggs, and "brooding" over them till they get warmth and life? Well, that is what the word means! God's Holy Spirit came near our earth, and surrounded it with His warmth and love. And then God said, "Let there be light!" or "Let the light come!" And lo! Instead of the dark waters and deep shadow, there came a shining over the earth; and God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. Next to the day and night, God made the air and the sky and the clouds. And He told the sea to stay where it was, and the sky to stay above the earth, and He called the sky Heaven. But still there was no land to be seen; so in His wonderful power, God told the sea to go back to a certain distance, and then the mountains and the hills and the plains stood out, and the earth was ready to be furnished for us men, who were to live on it. So God our Father, and Jesus Christ our Saviour, and the Holy Spirit our Comforter, all prepared this beautiful earth for us. It is God's power (by His wonderful laws) which holds the earth up in the sky, so that it does not tumble out of its place. And it is His power which brought the trees and the grass, the flowers and the corn, the fruit and the vegetables to make us happy. And now came something else.