In the beginning…
It’s the beginning of a new school
year. We have new, pointy-tipped crayons, sharp pencils with erasers still
intact, and clean, shiny nametags belonging to a room full of expectant,
hopeful, smiling faces. It’s a fresh start. So, it’s fitting that our
first Bible lesson looks back to the Origin of Everything and tells of a time
when the universe was new, and our memory verse begins with first three words
of the Bible…
.
In the beginning...
Since I’ve told this story scores
of times to dozens of groups of children, and it’s so easy for me to see the
Creation Story as a picture on construction paper: yellow for the day, black
for the night on Day 1; cotton ball clouds for the sky on Day 2; green grass
and brown land on Day 3; gold stickers for the stars God created on Day
4. It’s easy for me to forget the magnitude, the drama, the awesome
beauty of Creation.
It’s a mind-boggling,
beyond-our-wildest-imagination-and-understanding type of Event We humans have
only begun to scratch the surface in understanding the complexities of the
universe we inhabit.
I started to research "the
universe," which is defined as "all of space and time and all of its
contents." Its size is unknown, though some scientists guestimate that its
156-554 billion light years in diameter.
Wow! That really makes me feel
small. I started reading about prevailing theories on the composition and
development of the universe, but after a few paragraphs I realized that this is
far too much information for me to take in at one time. One thing I did
realize: theories are constantly changing, and if all the information about the
universe could fill an ocean, we have maybe an eye-dropper full of
understanding.
A universe so vast, so complex,
could not have come into being accidentally. In his blog, heelcatcher.com,
Pastor Steve Foster delves into the inadequacy of science to explain creation.
"Science still has no adequate answer for how a complex universe
randomly emerged out of pure nothingness," he says. The whole article is good
food for thought and can be found at
There are a few YouTube videos that
seek to represent creation. Watching these helps me recapture a sense of
awe.
As I begin a new school year, I
want to take a fresh look at the stories I've taken for granted and really try
to appreciate the marvels of this life that God has given us, and to
contemplate the majesty of God Himself.
This year, as your child learns
lessons from the Bible, perhaps for the first time, I invite you to look again
at the familiar stories and view them with childlike curiosity and amazement.
In the beginning.....God!
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