Living Creatures Were Equipped to Adapt

In Genesis 1, God instructed His newly created creatures to “be fruitful, multiply, and fill” the earth. In order for them to be fruitful, God gave each distinct group the ability to reproduce a new generation of the same kind. In order for them to multiply, God granted individual creatures the ability to produce more than one offspring each generation. And in order for them to fill, God equipped them with the ability to express trait variations between generations. Those variations help creatures not just survive, but thrive in different environments.

Thus, the individuals in one generation can be smaller or larger than those in another generation. The coat color or the size, shape, or number of fins, scales, horns, flowers, or leaves may also be different. But each generation faithfully retains the core attributes of its kind, such as its body plan and integrated vital organs, even after the countless generations that have come and gone in the thousands of years since creation.

Even today, examples abound that illustrate various ways in which God equipped His creatures with the marvelous potential to adapt—within the limits of a created kind—in ways that allow them to pioneer and fill the earth’s constantly changing environments. And each example provides yet another reason to marvel at the Creator’s engineering genius, care for His creation, and the accurate history recorded in Genesis.