Then summer will come with the glorious festoons of flowers and growing things. Winter comes again, and the precise patterns of seasons will be complete once again.
As I stand in the stillness of winter, I can’t help but wonder about the scientific theories regarding creation that I learned from enlightened professors in college.
They seem like the mixed-up letters of a kindergarten child learning to write. How could anyone believe that something this wonderful could come from nothing?
One of my good friends in my high school days told me about a watch he had found in a riverbed. It was a fine, gold watch with intricate moving parts. It was not a digital Walmart special.
The face was of tempered glass, the hands were delicately crafted, and the band was genuine gold. It kept perfect time after he wound the tiny knob on the timepiece.
My friend was overjoyed to find such a prize. Naturally, he didn’t want to discover who owned the watch because he would have to give it up. So he began to imagine how the watch came to be in the riverbed.
It was certainly too magnificent to have been created by the hand of man. It had to be created by nature. Things of such precision and accuracy always come from nature.
The atoms that made up the watch had been there for billions of years. As years passed, the atoms banged against each other and started a chemical reaction, which caused another chemical reaction, and the gold began to be formed into miniscule gold bars that connect to each other in a perfect elastic chain.
Another chemical reaction formed a perfectly round back with an inscription that just happened to read “Rolex.” The sand on the bottom of the riverbed bonded together and was tempered by the sun into a round piece of glass that fitted exactly over the round piece of gold.
Rocks were chipped by tumbling debris and flowing water until the intricate hands were formed. A great lightning storm caused the tiny pieces to move in military precision, keeping time with the seconds, minutes and hours of the seasons.
Yes! My friend was elated. He began to tell his friends about his magnificent discovery and, to his excitement, they believed him.
They too began to look for gold watches in the riverbed. He was so excited with his story and the telling and retelling of it that he began to believe it himself.
All was well until one day a watch expert came to town. He heard my friend’s story and smiled at the absurdity. “Let me see your watch,” he said. My friend proudly handed over the watch for inspection, meticulously telling his amazing story once again.
The expert hummed and hawed over the magnificent time piece and finally said, “Yes, I know this watch. I know how it was made, and furthermore I know who made this watch. He will be coming for it soon.”
Of course, the moral of the story is plain. Rolex watches don’t just happen. Somebody with intelligence, wisdom and skill put them together.
The world is much more intricate and magnificent than a Rolex watch. Just think how your body heals itself when it is sick. Think how it repairs itself when it is wounded.
Think of the millions of millions of babies, animal and human, that are born which come into the world without infirmity or complication. Once in a while there is a glitch, but usually that can be traced back to some man-made error.
Think of the pattern of the rain and the evaporative process. The rain falls, the sun causes the steam to rise from the earth into the air, and it rains again.
Imagine the law of gravity being subject to chance. I don’t know about you, but I have never seen anything wonderful happen by chance. Usually it takes a lot of planning and hard work.
Who could possibly think that the world, with all its complexities, came into existence without the direction of an all-wise and masterful creator?
Every year at Christmas time, there are a few articles and television specials which, in scientific jargon, try to discount the Christmas story and say the resurrection was a great charade.
Those are the same intellectual minds which expound that idiotic story about the creation, say that displaying the Ten Commandments in a school could be damaging to a child’s mind, and maintain that reciting the Pledge of Allegiance is an infringement on basic human rights.
One day they will hear the watch expert say, “Yes, I know this watch. I know how it was made, and furthermore I know who made this watch. He will be coming for it soon.” Except the watchmaker will be the Creator of the World.
Two-thousand years ago, Christ was born in a stable in Bethlehem. A new star appeared in the heavens. If you think that is fantastic, think of the myriad of other galaxies filled with new stars and ancient stars that God has created.
Think of how the planets move in perfect order. There never has been a mistake in the pattern as long as I can remember. Can you imagine the chaos in our solar system if one planet got out of order?
Why shouldn’t God make a new and special star to shine over the stable where his son would begin his earthly mission?
An angel did appear to the shepherds on the Plains of Judea. He did give the message of peace on earth and good will toward men.
Why should God not send an angel? He had sent an angel to Abraham to tell him about the coming of his son, Isaac. He sent an angel to tell Zechariah that his son, John, would be born.
Why should He not send an angel to tell the world that Jesus, His own Son, would come into the world?
Is the Christmas story true? There is one sure way to find out. Ask! God has promised, “And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive” (Matthew 22:22).
If God answered Moses’ plea at the burning bush and Joseph’s plea about Pharaoh’s dream, why would he not answer your prayer to find the truth about the Christmas story?
Christmas is a time for recognizing the glory of God and spreading the message of peace over the world. I don’t know of a time when we need the message of peace and goodwill more than we need it right now.
Isn’t it about time to find out for ourselves the truth about Christmas and the man whose birthday we celebrate on December 25th?
I have found that going to the source of the information is worth a thousand hours of reading the commentaries. You will find eyewitness accounts of the life of Christ written in the Holy Scriptures.
These accounts were written and preserved through 2,000 years of history to speak and testify to a modern world that they are true.
Science holds sacred the writings of the Greeks and the Romans as historical fact. I wonder how they can discount the Bible when there are so many witnesses of its truth.
I guess you have to believe my friend’s story about the watch before you can understand how a mind like that works.
