There is an incredible variety of creepy-crawly things on the earth. The Bible calls them “living creatures.”
After God created a suitable environment to sustain life on earth (light, air, water, soil, plants and fruit), He began to create living creatures to inhabit the earth. This was the fifth day of Creation.
Genesis 1:20-22 says, “Then God said, ‘Let the waters teem with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth in the open expanse of the heavens.’ And God created the great sea monsters, and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarmed after their kind, and every winged bird after its 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 birds multiply on the earth.’” Here we see the creation of sea creatures for the hydrosphere and fowl (birds) for the atmosphere.
The word “living creatures” actually means “a swarm; an active mass of small creatures.” It comes from a root verb that means “to wiggle.” Now, this is probably a reference to the smaller creatures that inhabit the oceans – everything from minute plankton to smaller varieties of fish. It evidently includes all kinds of marine animals – invertebrates, vertebrates, and perhaps even reptiles.
As Dr. Henry Morris observes, “The first introduction of animal life was not a fragile blob of protoplasm that happened to come together in response to electrical discharges over a primeval ocean, as evolutionists believe. Rather, the waters suddenly swarmed abundantly with swarming creatures….”
Now you know the real meaning of the word.
Suggestion: Take your friends or family to an aquarium and spend time pondering the exotic fish and see creatures. It is inspiring!