Once several years ago I had the honor of teaching 2nd and 3rd grade students in Bible class. That is a wonderful age! They are so much fun to teach. We had been discussing the awesome power of God and the wonders of creation. I was trying to point out the diversity of life on the earth and the amazing number of creatures God made. We were discussing the fact that Adam was given the task of naming all the animals.
In order to try and make this lesson a little more real to my students we decided to play a little game. A letter of the alphabet was chosen and then the children were given a certain amount of time to write down the names of all the animals they could think of that started with that letter. Children are very competitive at that age, so they really got into the game. We played several times choosing a different letter every time. Finally, I told the children to stop and think just a minute about all the animals they had named. I pointed out the fact that they were only trying to remember names that had already been made up. They were not trying to come up with new names. And again we talked about all the different creatures -- birds, fish, mammals and insects that the Lord had made to live on the earth. You should have seen the look of fascination on their faces as the enormity of Adam's task slowly began to dawn on them. Finally, one of the young ladies in the class said, "Wow! That's awesome!"
Indeed the beauty of creation, considering all the different, wonderful, beautiful creatures that God made and the fact that he made the earth the perfect home for each creature -- well that is awesome. Our God is awesome! If we didn't believe in the power of God to create the world and all of its living creatures; then we would have no basis for any of our other beliefs. We start there --in the beginning. We must acknowledge that God IS. The earth had a beginning and God created it. He made a beautiful world for us to live in. He made the sun to keep us warm and the moon and stars to give us light in the darkness of the night. He placed the earth at the exact distance from the sun that it would take to keep us warm enough to live without burning us up. Then he gave us plenty of water to help us sustain our life. He made the sky beautiful -- so that as we looked up we would do so with wonder and joy in our hearts to think of Him. Yes, we needed a sky - an atmosphere, but God did not have to make it so beautiful. That is one of His gifts to us -- the sheer beauty of the sky -- and of the world!!
I do not understand how anyone can look around at our wonderful earth and not know that it was created by a Supreme Being --our one and only true and living God. To me, it takes so much more faith to think that everything started from nothing -- I still don't understand that -- it was just some kind of accident??? How could there be an accident if nothing was there? Psalms 19:1 - "The heavens declare the glory of God; and the sky above proclaims His handiwork." Doesn't it, though?
Yes, the whole basis of our faith starts with Genesis 1:1 - "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." Without believing this -nothing else matters.
And consider how God felt when he had finished His creation. Genesis 1:31 - "And God saw everything that He had made and behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day."
God was happy with His creation. He loved this new world He made. Perhaps that is why we have such beautiful scriptures in the New Testament that allude to His great care for the world He made.
Look at Matthew 6:26 - "Look at the birds of the air, they neither sow nor reap, nor gather into barns; and yet your Heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?" Then verse 28- 29 says: "And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin: yet I tell you even Solomon, in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these."
Jesus is telling us in these scriptures that God is going to take care of us above the animals and the flowers because we are created in His image -- we have a living soul. If we seek Him first (verse 33) He is going to take care of us. But we also see here in these scriptures how much love God has for his creation. He continues to care for the fowls of the air and all animals that He created. He loves the magnificent raiment He gave the flowers to wear. The natural beauty of God (the flowers) is more beautiful than anything man could make, even the fabulous royal garments with which Solomon was clothed!
So you see, that sweet little lady was exactly right. "WOW! That IS awesome!!"
I pray we will always love and respect the great beauty of our world and that we will understand how much God loves His creation. We should also remember that we are the crown of His creation. Consider all the love He put into creating our world! Consider the love He had for us in giving us a Savior!
Christ above all things,
Robin
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