Sometimes it’s difficult to be a Christian teacher at a public school. While I am teaching temporal lessons and values, I am often aware of the deeper, spiritual lessons that are so much more valuable.
In science, we are studying natural disasters. It’s fun to learn about the complex world that God created. Graham crackers, fruit roll-ups, and frosting helped us understand tectonic plate movements that cause earthquakes, volcanoes, and tsunamis. This week, we spent time watching National Geographic videos that answer the questions, “How does Earth’s surface change?” and “How do changes on Earth’s surface impact humans?”
We had good discussions about how the changes on Earth’s surface impact us. The students have all been through a real tornado warning (end of school year 2004), and some students have lost family members to avalanches or other disasters. There is no question that changes on Earth’s surface impact us, but I am afraid some of my students may have left class feeling frightened of these things. We talked about how we can’t change these disasters from happening, even though people are working to predict them and warn people of the danger.
As I gazed out at the pleading eyes of my students, I nearly spewed what I believe. These things are scary, but the Lord is sovereign over it all! No, we can’t change these disasters from occurring, but we can trust our lives into the hands of the God who created it all. It would have been the perfect opportunity to give them these words of truth…yet I cannot speak of such things in the classroom. It saddens me that I can teach about the beauty of creation without even mentioning the Creator.
2 Responses to Creation without a Creator