Who Made Everything?
Joseph Anderson Donetti looked at the other members of the baptismal class. Mac and Trevor and Hannah looked at Joseph’s bedroom wall. So did Pastor Chuck.
“Wow!” Trevor exclaimed. “I’m sure glad I got to see this! Thanks for inviting us to study here today, Joseph. I wonder if my mother will let me write Bible verses on my wall? I’m going to ask her!”
“All my walls are covered with wall paper,” Hannah said. Her voice dripped with disappointment.
“I’m going to make posters with verses on them,” Mac put in. “My friend Patti is going to show me how to do that fancy lettering. Calligraphy, it’s called. I’m going to do verses in calligraphy on posters. Hey! Maybe you guys could come with me when I go to Patti’s house. Maybe she could teach calligraphy to all of us!”
“That sound like a lot of fun!” Pastor Chuck said. “Can I come too? I’m always having to design posters and signs and stuff for church. If I learned some calligraphy, maybe people could actually read them.”
“Well,” Mac looked doubtful, “if you’re sure you’re not too old to learn something new,” she said.
Pastor Chuck’s mouth fell open. He looked like a fish waiting to be fed.
Mac began to giggle.
Pastor Chuck slowly hunched over. His arms started to shake gently. He lifted his right hand and stared at it. Then he peered around his trembling hand at Mac. “My mind still functions, honey,” he said in a quivery, old-man voice. “And if I can remember to take my medication, I think I’ll be able to learn this calligraphy thing in spite of my shakes.”
Joseph and Trevor and Hannah shouted with laughter.
No one heard G.M. climbing up the stairs. She stood in the bedroom doorway. “Isn’t there just a little too much merriment in here?” she asked.
“God made laughter, Mrs. Anderson,” Mac said. “I think it’s one of the best things He made. I even learned a verse about it. It says, ‘A happy heart is like good medicine.'”
“That’s true,” G.M. agreed. “And it certainly sounds as if everybody in here is plenty healthy.”
“I hope we’re not disturbing you,” Pastor Chuck said quickly.
“Of course you’re not!” G.M. answered. She began to sing. “Deck the halls with sounds of laughter. Tra-la-la-la-la, la, la, la, la.” G.M.’s eyes smiled. “Well, I’ll leave you to your very serious Bible study. ‘Tis the season to be jolly.'” Her song trailed off down the stairs.
“I really like your grandmother,” Hannah said to Joseph.
“Let’s sit down,” Pastor Chuck suggested. “This leads rather nicely into just what we are going to study this afternoon–creation. Mac said God created laughter. Well, He did. He created laughter and everything else.”
Joseph and Trevor sat cross-legged on the bed. Mac and Hannah sat on the floor and leaned against the bed. Pastor Chuck sat on the pillow Joseph tossed down to him.
“Now how do we know where we came from?” Pastor Chuck asked when he had arranged his legs comfortably. “How do we know for sure how things began?”
“God made us, of course!” Mac answered promptly. “He made everything in the beginning. The earth, and the plants, and the animals, and the stars, and the sun, and Adam, and Eve, and everything! The Bible says so.”
“That’s not what my science teacher said,” Joseph interrupted. “My teacher said that everything evolved from single cells and it took billions and billions of years to make the world like it is today.”
“Did you believe that?” Mac asked.
“Sure,” Joseph answered. “But I did always wonder where the stuff came from that made the first cell.”
“You’ve put your finger right on the problem,” Pastor Chuck said. “A person has to believe in a God Who made everything or else believe that elements have always existed, like building blocks that everything else evolved from.”
“It’s really hard to believe that there were always elements–those building block things–floating around and they just arranged themselves accidentally into a cell,” Hannah said quietly. “And there are an awful lot of cells in a tree, or a dog, or me!”
“Yeah,” Trevor added. “Everything is so complicated! I mean really complicated!” He wiggled his fingers. “I mean how could a bunch of elements just make a cell and then eventually make something as complicated as a person? It’s impossible!”
“It is,” Pastor Chuck said. “It’s sort of like believing that if we took Joseph’s watch apart and put all the little pieces into a bag and shook the bag for about a billion years, all the pieces would eventually arrange themselves back into a watch.”
Mac frowned. “Yeah, but there would be no one around to set the watch. And what good would a watch be anyway if there was no one who needed to know the time? And where would all the little pieces come from in the first place?”
“That’s just it!” Pastor Chuck exclaimed. “Someone did make all the pieces and put them together. Someone planned everything. And that same Someone very carefully designed you and loved you before you were even born!”
“I guess we should be really happy that the Bible tells us that,” Mac commented.
“It’s all in the book of Genesis,” Pastor Chuck said. “The word ‘genesis’ means ‘beginning’. Genesis tells us about the beginning of the universe, the beginning of life, the beginning of humanity, the beginning of evil, and about God’s plan to save us.”
“It sounds like the place I should begin reading!” Joseph said with a laugh.
“Well,” Pastor Chuck grinned at him, “they say there’s no place to begin like the beginning.” He looked up at Joseph’s wall. “I think Genesis 1:1 would be another text you would want to write up there,” he said.
“Right!” Joseph agreed. “And I even have room at the top. I can put it up there right next to the ceiling.”
