Evolution

Yesterday my sister, nephew and his young son came to visit and stay for a bite of lunch.  In conversation it was remarked how quickly babies grow and that suddenly clothes that had plenty of room become a little tight.  Looking back at old photographs, it is interesting how people change in appearance from being small children, through adolescence and into adulthood and so the generations go on.  As children grow, it’s not only the outward appearance that changes by growing but they begin to learn and expand their minds to absorb new things every day.  On a personal level I not only changed physically and mentally but many of my attitudes and my outlook on life have changed over the years.  Life experiences have changed my thoughts and attitudes about some things.  Paul in the New Testament says that as a child he said and did things in a certain way but now as a man he sees things differently.  Over the years, we evolve on a personal level.

I have been watching the mini-series on TV lately ‘How to grow a planet’ and that scientists have come to the conclusion that all life on earth evolved from plants.  It traced planet Earth from the time when all land was just one large mass without separate continents as we know today and the rest was one massive ocean.  Then plants were formed first of all in the water and then on land and from there life of all creatures began.  Some Christians look on this sort of programme and reject them considering them to be about evolution vs christianity.  I must say that I don’t see them that way at all. 

When we look at the story of creation in the Bible, the order of events that scientists tell us about is exactly as the Bible says.  For me these programmes seem to be confirming what the Bible says rather than contradicting it - each stage from the swirling formless mass that was at the beginning to the separation of sea and land.  Then the first life form was plant life, then creatures living in the water and birds and the other land creatures and humans came last. 

How I differ from many scientists is that they say it happened by chance (although not all) but to me there is the amazing creative intelligence of God who was there at the start of it all and who caused it all to come into being.  Then of course there is the question about such a variation within each species.  This has earned scientists like David Attenborough a good living over many years, discovering so many different plants and creatures.  Scientists now know that animals have a form of language and that some do use tools and think and feel emotions.  The big difference I suppose is the sense of awe and worship that humans have, however primitive.  So did humans evolve from apes or just within the human species?  Will we ever really know?  If God is behind it all and made it happen, does it really matter how it happened?  I am just in awe of God and His evolving creation I see all around me.  What an amazing God and what a wonderful world!