High atop any list of perennial questions about Christian faith is the subject of creation and evolution. Four facts are important. First: the Bible was not intended to be a science textbook. While Scripture speaks with authority and truth to every subject it addresses, it was not written to define the age of the earth. It tells us what we need to know to follow Jesus, not all we would like to know about the world he created.

Second: the Bible tells us that God created all that is (Genesis 1:1) and pronounced it good (v. 31). He created life in the sea and birds in the air (vs. 20-21), living creatures on land (v. 24) and mankind in his image to "rule" all the life he created (v. 26).

Third: God created the universe in six "days," the Hebrew word for a defined period of time. These were not necessarily 24-hour days marked by sunrise and sunset. In fact, while "there was evening, and there was morning" each "day," God didn't create the sun and the moon until the fourth "day." Some ancient rabbis thought Genesis meant that God created the universe in six literal days; others believed he created in six acts with undetermined periods of time between them; still others argued that he created in six "eons" or "ages." Genesis doesn't specify, because the answer is of no practical significance. If I could tell you precisely how old the universe is, would such information change your life today?

Four: you are here on purpose. You are not an accident, or the coincidence of random chaos. God made you, intentionally, for a reason. You are the greatest miracle you know. Your body consists of 206 bones, wrapped with 650 muscles and seven miles of nerve fibers. Your eyes possess 100 million receptors, and your ears 24,000 fibers. Your heart beats 36,000,000 times every year and sends blood pumping through more than 60,000 miles of veins, arteries, and tubing.

Your brain contains 13,000,000,000 nerve cells. Picture the possible number of interconnections in your brain this way: the number of atoms in the universe is 1 followed by 100 zeroes. The number of different patterns possible in your brain is 1 followed by over 800 zeros. And your unconscious brain database, that which your unconscious brain knows and stores, outweighs your conscious brain on an order exceeding 10 million to one. You literally cannot imagine how remarkable you are.

For more on creation and evolution, I invite you to the larger essay at godissues.com. For today, know that you are the greatest miracle in the universe. God made you, and he never makes a mistake. Guaranteed.

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