Weighing the options

I was 14 at time, newly immersed in a new school that was 20 times larger than the small country school of my elementary years.

The hallways were packed with students toting textbooks while connecting with friends.

I walked alone that day, moving from my Biology class to typing class. I re-played the lecture from Biology as I maneuvered the crowded hallway.

Our topic had been evolution. We had spent several days on the intricacies of the evolutionary process and had viewed the drawings of fetuses which proved how human fetuses early in their development are identical to other animal fetuses. This proved that all humans and animals came from the same source.

We hadn't studied anything so sophisticated in my country school. This was new ground for me.

My pastor never discussed evolution. Not in his sermons, not in the confirmation classes I was required to attend. Not in our youth group.

But I had read the first chapter of Genesis and I mulled over its content on my trek through the hallway's obstacle course. I bumped into other students in the crowded walkway and sidestepped a knot of friends exchanging lunch plans before skittering off to class.

The issue was very simple to me, probably because I was a simple 14-year-old country kid. Was Genesis true or not?

Either the first chapter of Genesis outlined that God created the world or it didn't. And, if it didn't, then why should I pay any attention to any further writings in the Bible?

The hallway cleared out as I neared the typing classroom and I shifted my books before entering.

I knew in an instant that I could not live my life if the Bible was not true. And in that same instant, I knew, therefore, that Genesis had to be true.

I knew that the evolutionary theory held no sway in my life. I had choose where to put my faith and I chose, with a simple clarity that amazes me today, that my faith was in the Bible.

And God has not let me down.