GOD WHO MADE US
ONE thing that all boys and girls should learn is that there are many things they don’t know. That is true of grownups too. But boys and girls, and grown-up people as well, should also know that because there are some things they cannot understand it does not mean that those things are not real. Let us think a minute about the radio, or better still, television. In England they call the radio the “wireless.” That is a good name, too, because it means there are no wires between the radio in your home and the broadcasting station from which the programs come.
Well, as you know, we sit in our homes and listen to programs of different kinds. In a children’s program we hear boys and girls singing and playing music. That beautiful music comes out of the radio just as though the people were right there in the room. And in television we see the singers also. Isn’t that wonderful? Now, you might think this is because those in the radio or television station are singing and playing so loudly that it can be heard far away, but that is not so. They don’t sing and play loudly at all, yet the music comes through the air for miles and miles, and when we tune in we hear it.
Now I imagine you saying to me, “Please explain how that is done. What makes the music come through the air?”
Well, I just don’t know, so I cannot explain it. The only ones who can explain that are those who made the stations and the sets which we have in our home. But just the same, even though we cannot explain it, we know that radio and television are real and we enjoy them. And we know, too, that the reason we have these things is because somebody made them.
Then there are so many other things we cannot explain. We look up into the sky at night and we see hundreds and hundreds of beautiful stars. They twinkle so brightly that we often wish we could reach right up and take one of the stars in our hands, but we know that we cannot do that. They are so very far away that it is impossible for us to reach them, no matter how hard we might try. Sometimes we see airplanes up in the sky, and they are so far away that they look just like little birds, don’t they? Well those stars are ever so much farther away than any airplane could ever be.
The stars look like tiny sparks of fire, but actually they are great big worlds, much larger than this earth on which we live. They look so little because they are so very far away. Now I know what you are thinking! You are wondering who put the stars up in the sky. Perhaps you think it must have been a very tall man with a long ladder. But that’s not right. No one on this earth could possibly reach the stars, nor would anyone be able to put them up in their places in the sky. “Well,” you ask, “how did they get there?”
Boys and girls, it is very important that we know and believe the right answer to this question. It was God! But you ask:
“Who is God, and what does he look like?”
The Bible tells us who God is, and that he is the One who made the earth and the stars, and all the other wonderful things of nature we see around us. The Bible calls him the Creator, which means one who makes things. The Bible does not tell us, though, what God looks like, and no one on this earth has ever seen him.
We know that we would not be able to make the stars, just as we couldn’t make a radio. But someone who knows more than we do made the radio, and so someone who knows more than anybody on this earth made the stars. The Bible tells us it was God, and we know that the Bible is true. So now we have two very important things to remember.
There is something else we should know and remember, which is that while we have wonderful eyes, we cannot see everything. You may have a book with many nice pictures in it. When you hold the book in your hand you can see and enjoy the pictures, but if someone should take the book out into the street and then you tried to see the pictures in it, why, of course, you wouldn’t be able to see them. Your eyes are not made to see pictures so far away. But the pictures are just as pretty out there on the street as they were when you held the book in your own hands, only your eyes can’t see them.
Well, our eyes can’t see God, either. Our eyes are not made so that we can. God is different from us. He is so different that we couldn’t see him even if be were close to us. He has to be different, or else he could not have made the stars. But God is very real, and much more wonderful and powerful than anyone we have ever seen. God made many other things beside the stars.
He also made those wonderful beings which the Bible calls angels. They, too, are different from us. They are heavenly beings, and that is why our eyes cannot see them.
The very first one of these heavenly beings which God made was called the Archangel. This name means that he was the most important angel. The Bible also calls him the “Son of God.” This dear Son of God was, the Bible explains, the “beginning of the creation of God.” This means that he was the very first heavenly being that was made. Then, this wonderful heavenly Son worked with God in making everything else. That is what the Bible tells us. In fact, the Son made everything almost by himself, but he did it for God, and God gave him the power and wisdom to do it.
I don’t know how to build a house, but if someone asked me to build a house, and showed me just how to do it, and gave me everything to work with, then I could build the house. Now that’s the way it was with this wonderful Son of God. God furnished everything to work with, and gave him the wisdom he needed to do the work.
And God’s Son certainly did make a lot of things! All the stars were made by him. And he made the angels also. Among these angels was a very handsome one who was named Lucifer. The Bible tells us that the Son of God, together with Lucifer and all the other angels, sang together because they were so happy over the wonderful works of God. How grand that music must have been—more beautiful, I am sure, than anything we have ever heard.
But, you know, there is a sad part to this story. Lucifer became proud and jealous. It’s a terrible thing to be proud and jealous. I just hope that none of you ever get that way. If some other children have more good things than you, be happy about it. Just say to yourself, “I’m glad they have such nice things!” If you think about it in the right way, you can be just as happy as they are!
Try it, and see if I am not right!
But Lucifer didn’t look at it that way. He did not have as many favors as were enjoyed by the Son of God, so he decided that he was not being treated fairly. He decided that God was to blame for this, so be began to oppose God. When boys and girls begin to feel jealous they become unhappy and sullen. They pout and are cranky, and when their parents want them to do something, they sniffle and cry.
Well, I don’t suppose angels pout and sniffle, but Lucifer did turn against God, and has been God’s enemy ever since. I want you to know this, because the Bible tells us a lot about Lucifer. He has caused a great deal of trouble right here on the earth; but if we know about him, and how he works, then he can’t cause us so much trouble. When Lucifer started to work against God, his name was changed. He was called Satan, and the Bible also calls him the devil.
After all the angels were made, and all the stars were made, and the sun and the moon, God’s Son began the work of making things here on the earth. Just think of all the wonderful things that were made for our enjoyment! There are rivers, and mountains, and trees, and flowers, and fruit, and nuts, and so very many other things. Then there are all the animals, and birds, and fish—all these were made by God’s Son and put here on the earth to live and to enjoy themselves.
But, you know, I haven’t even mentioned the most wonderful thing that was done here on the earth. It was so wonderful that I’ll have to make a whole story out of it, which will be the next story—the story of Adam and Eve, the first man and the first woman.
QUESTIONS
- What are some of the things which boys and girls and grown-ups cannot understand?
- Who made the stars, and why are they like little sparks of fire?
- Why is it not possible for us to see God, who made us?
- Whom else did God make besides people who live on the earth?