Genesis 1:2

"Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters." Genesis 1:2 (NIV)

Interesting that it's already referring to water while the earth is still formless.  It's hard to quite know what to do with this verse.  If it's building on verse one it makes sense to me. 

An interesting tid bit Bible Lexicon says that the word "formless" is translated from can mean "unreality" which really seems to emphasis the pre-designing of the very molecules of the earth.  It gives me the mental picture that it's there (because he created it) but not quite there yet.  The "darkness" can also refer to obscurity which flows perfectly with that thought.

Now here's where we get to the waters.  It's strange to think that creation has started but the earth has been given no form, but there's already water.  But then looking at water, it doesn't really have any form, but takes the form of it's container instead.  So maybe when God began he started with water and then created the containers for the waters.  This seems to make the most sense to me, but it is difficult to wrap my brain around the whole idea of there just being water - no horizon, no land, no nothing else.  BibleArchaeology and GodandScience both seem agree with this assessment.

Every source I find agrees that the original word meant "water."  The interesting thing is in the QBible, it also gives a figurative translation of that word as "semen."  It's like God telling us that this water is the seed he planted that all creation has grown from.  He's setting up the blueprint that he uses over and over again.  Living creatures, plants, ideas, etc. start as seeds that grows and mature. 

The most important thing to get from this verse is that God was there close by as he created everything.  This isn't some hands-off-I'll-check-on-you-when-I-have-nothing-better-to-do sort of God, this is a God that gets up close and personal with his creation, not afraid to get his hands in the mud.