Yesterday afternoon I was hanging out with the kids at our new favorite spot, the stream behind our house. As we were walking along the stream, John noticed that there were some old fenceposts. As we examined them, we noticed that the wire had been removed, but the fenceposts remained. Not long after that we walked past some tree stumps that had been sawed off many years earlier. Eventually we came to a pile of sticks and logs, which was also quite old, but it was obviously man-made. Finally, we came to the train tracks which our lovely stream flows under.

As the kids played and enjoyed themselves, I pondered what we had just observed. And it occurred to me that this would be a good chance to teach the kids a little nature/creation lesson.

So I called the kids around and reviewed with them what we had walked past along the way – the fenceposts, the sawed-off stumps, the woodpile, and the train tracks right in front of us. I told them that it was obvious that these had not happened by chance or through the random effects of nature. The evidence clearly pointed in the direction of being man-made.

Then I made a contrast. I pointed to 2-3 trees that had blown over just a few days before. They weren’t cut off like the stumps but were pulled up at the roots by extremely strong winds. This was just one example of many (erosion would be another good one) that point to the effects of nature, and that are not manipulated by humans.

I could tell the wheels were starting to turn as the kids understood where I was going with my lesson. The scientific community wants us to believe that the earth and the universe as a whole just happened “by chance.” But just like our little stroll down the stream, God has given us much evidence that this world didn’t just magically appear.  Rather, it bears all the evidence of design and creativity and order (Genesis 1-2).

Friends, the Bible says that “God created the heavens and the earth.” Everywhere you walk and everywhere you look, there are signs of His marvelous handiwork (Psalm 19). Let the beauty of creation point you to the Creator, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy (1 Timothy 4:4, 6:17). And don’t buy into the silly, unscientific, evolutionary lie that things just happened by chance and over billions of years. That is nothing but folly (Psalm 14:1), and a rejection of the Creator God.

²¹ For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. ²² Claiming to be wise, they became fools, ²³ and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. (Romans 1:21-23)