ReclaimJesus.net

September. Labor Day. This means only one thing.

Actually, it means lots of things. It means putting away the summer wardrobe; no more whites until next June; tuning up your arm for throwing the old football, raking the old leaves, shoveling the old snow. Labor Day. Ugh!

Labor Day means one other thing, too. It means answering that age-old question you’ve been called upon to answer since kindergarten: What did you do over your summer vacation?

I didn’t do much. Unless you count re-discovering creation.

I re-discovered creation in two very different ways, with two very different types of teachers, too. First, I spent a good part of my summer “off-time” studying the subatomic world, Einstein’s Theory of Relativity (Special and General, of course), and the fascinating world of quantum physics. It’s something I have always wanted to learn about, and this summer I at least started down that road. In the process I have come to understand a whole lot of fascinating concepts, not the least of which is the so-called “curvature of space-time.” Space and time, it turns out, aren’t what they appear to be. Not in the micro-world of sub-atomic particles, nor in the macro-world of galaxies.

But for today, we’ll keep things simple. Did you know that the diameter of an atom is on 1/100, 000,000 (that’s one one-hundred millionth) of a centimeter? “But never mind fractions,” you protest, “tell us how big an atom is in terms we can understand.” Fair enough. Imagine an orange blown up to the size of the earth. One silly little atom of that earth-sized orange would be the size of a cherry. To put it another way, if you were going to fill up every cubic inch of earth with cherries, that’s how many atoms you would need to make an orange.

Did you know that the nucleus (the center) of an atom is 1/100,000 (one one-hundred thousandth) the size of the atom but contains almost all of its mass? The rest of the atom is space! Did you know that the nucleons (the protons and neutrons inside the nucleus) race around at 40,000 miles per second? That’s what makes for the density of objects out here in our everyday, ordinary world. That’s why we can’t walk through stuff! That’s why cherries are cherries, and oranges are oranges, and the earth is the earth. Fascinating, huh?

Enough about re-discovering creation in the big and little worlds we live in! Let’s move on to the ordinary, everyday world where we live and work and have our being. This summer Susan and I increased our grandchild total from two to four in less than two weeks. On May 19, our daughter Ellen gave birth to their second son whom they named Evander. Eleven days later, on May 30, our son Travis and his wife, Cheryl, welcomed their first child, Silas, into the world.

While there is still much to be re-discovered about Creation by observing our other two Creation Experts, three-year old Auden and one-year old Addie, it is Evander and Silas who have been my primary teachers this summer.

Did you ever just lay in your stroller, all sprawled out, and marvel at the rustling of the trees as the world passes you by? At the puffy clouds in the sky? Probably not in a few years, huh?

Did you ever just lay there on the floor watching a ceiling fan whirl around over and over and over again? Or a tiny little bug crawling around. Probably not in a while, huh?

Did you ever just smile for no apparent reason at all, then frantically start kicking your legs to and fro, seemingly at 40,000 miles per second. Not recently, huh?

Did you ever just flail your hands in every conceivable direction, at varying velocities (seemingly like 40 million miles per second), and eventually be rewarded by discovering your thumb? Another smile. A wry grin.

Did you ever re-discover Creation?

It isn’t too late. Go for it!

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