The Creator

Do you remember the great childhood classic Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White? I haven’t read it in a couple of years but my last reading of it was memorable. I was reading it with my oldest daughter who hadn’t yet been told that the meat she ate each day used to be an animal. When we got to the part where they were talking about Wilbur being the Easter ham she was appalled to say the least. But that is not the memorable part. This is probably cruel and I have most likely caused the need for my daughter to have future counseling but it was like the filter from my brain to my mouth was malfunctioning. She was just so grossed out by Wilber being eaten as a ham. We had just eaten lunch and it was the good old American meal of hot dogs and mac-n-cheese. And out of my mouth it came, “What are you so upset about? You just ate Wilbur for lunch! What did you think a hot dog was made of?” Oh, I can still see the look of shock on her face. To anyone who is a vegetarian or crazy about animal rights you probably don’t find that funny at all, but I am telling you, it was priceless. I am still laughing about it. No worries for my fellow meat eaters, she still eats meat. But she does frequently tell me how her favorite food is steak and how terrible she feels for that cow.

Thanks for taking that quick trip down memory lane with me. There was really no point to that story except for the fact that I am still laughing and will probably be smiling the entire time I write this blog. But there was a point to Wilbur being an Easter Ham. Charlotte, the spider, had promised Wilbur she would stop the farmer from following through on the whole ham thing. So one night she spins a web and in it she writes “Some Pig.” Mr. Zuckerman, the farmer, is just blown away. He isn’t sure what is so unusual about his pig yet, but he is certain that there is something because the web says so. “It’s a miracle,” he says. Mr. Zuckerman goes to his wife, tells her all this and this is her reply, “Well, it seems to me you’re a little off. It seems to me we have no ordinary spider.”

How often are we like Mr. Zuckerman? We look right past the Creator and focus on the creation. I like Kate’s word of the year, intentional. I have decided to be intentional in seeing the Creator and in helping my kids to see the Creator.

“For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.” Romans 1:20

I read this the other day in my bible study and was stuck on the phrases ‘clearly seen’ and ‘without excuse’. Without a bible, without a bible study, without a Pastor, He can still be seen “clearly.” He has made his creation, leaving us with no excuse for not seeing and knowing that He is the Creator. I have no plan to go without my bible, bible study or Pastor, but I do plan to slow down and see the Creator through his creation and I want my kids included in this too.

I can see us all sitting outside enjoying the sunshine, drinking lemonade and laughing together. I want to slow that down, tell my kids to feel the heat of that sunshine on their skin, to recognize that the sun is a huge ball of gas. It’s so bright we can’t look at it without it hurting our eyes. It is so huge we can still see it from 93 million miles away and can you imagine how hot that sun would be if the Earth were any closer to it. It would be so hot that life could not exist.

I can see the kids running and playing so hard that they have to stop, lay down in the grass to catch their breath. Now slow that down. I will have them breath in slow, feel their chest rise and fill with oxygen. Exhale slowly and feel the carbon dioxide leave their body.

I can see us taking a walk through the woods. Now slow down. Stop and feel the tree. Feel its rough bark and soft leaves. It is amazing that the oxygen we breathe in is from that tree and that very same tree needs the carbon dioxide we breathe out. It is amazing how sensitive to touch our fingertips are that they feel the rough, the soft, the cold, and the hot.

I want to slow down with my kids and really take in the creation but most of all I want to take in the awesomeness of a Creator who put the earth just far enough away from the sun so that life could exist on it. The incredible care that was taken in forming our bodies just right so that they could see, hear, taste, smell and touch. The remarkable detail of the Creator who made a tree that needs what we breathe out and we need the oxygen that it makes.

In all that is seen a Creator that loves and cares for his creation, a Creator that wants his creation to thrive and wishes them good. It is evidence of the truth of God’s Word, that the invisible qualities of his divine nature and eternal powers are clearly seen.

I invite you to join me in being intentional in seeing the Creator through his creation with your children. I have no bigger plan than just to slow down and take it all in. I know some days that will seem impossible but I am up for the challenge. I want my kids to see just how much their God loves them and this is just one more way to go about that.

The Good News of Jesus Christ is evidence of our Creator’s love for us. It is a picture that is hard to wrap our heads around sometimes. The idea that our Creator could love us so much that He would send His son to die for us, a fallen sinful people. And if you have ever taken a real hard look at yourself I am sure you understand what I am talking about. You see your ugliness and don’t understand why God would do that for you. It’s love, a love that is beyond our understanding. But God has given us something that we can clearly see and understand about His love in what He has made. I want to use that to teach my children about their Heavenly Father’s love for them.