Why Did God Create Dinosaurs? Selena’s View

Selena asked me a question the other day, “Why did God create Dinosaurs?” I was curious as to what her hypothesis was, so we set out to take what information we know and figure out the best answer we could.

First of all Selena grabbed the Bible and turned it open to Genesis.  She started pointing information out to me pretty quickly, so I had to slow her down and make her think. I asked just a few questions:

1. In the Beginning how many people were on the Earth?
2. What do you think the Earth looked like?
3. Why would dinosaurs be important to the health and ecology of the earth?

Based on these questions Selena decided that because in the beginning there were not a lot of people on the earth, that God created dinosaurs to protect the earth. I asked How?

She continued, well we needed lots of large herbivores to eat or mow down the vegetation to prevent it from overtaking the Earth, plus we needed the Carnivores to prevent the herbivores from eating all the vegetation.  We also needed Omnivores to keep the balance.

I asked her one last question: “Why did God allow the Dinosaurs to go extinct?”

She thought real hard and at first she said that God killed them all during the flood. I asked her if she was sure of that answer, after all God did command Noah to put 2 of every animal on the Ark. This took her a while, and she counter questioned me with, How do we know that God put dinosaurs on the Ark, and if he did why don’t we still have dinosaurs, though we do have relatives to dinosaurs, I mean real dinosaurs?

In an attempt to come help her think this through I asked her a few questions:

1. Thinking to our study of Dinosaurs, when did the largest amount of dinosaurs die? Is there evidence of Dinosaurs after that time?
2. How long did Noah and the animals stay on the Ark?
3. What do you know about floods, and how do you think the Earth looked like after the flood?

After a little thought she decided most of the dinosaurs died during the flood, but yes, there is evidence that some were still on the Earth after the flood. She remembered that Noah, his family and the animals were on the ark for a year. Thinking to how the Earth looked like after the flood, she remembered seeing some of the flooding we have had around here, and decided that the Earth went through a change, after the waters went down, it would not have been the same, maybe not as much vegetation for the herbivores, if they couldn’t survive, the carnivores wouldn’t survive long either, and we wouldn’t need the omnivores to keep the balance.

I don’t know if her hypothesis is correct, and neither do you, but I did remind her the day would come that she would be standing face to face with God and could ask Him for herself. Rather her hypothesis is correct or not, she put a lot of thought into it, and worked hard to try to look at everything, from science, biblical, to geography to make her hypothesis, so it sounds like a good one to me.

Answering Life’s Hard Questions

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life. John 3:16

As Selena memorized this Bible verse along she began make many discoveries.

1. Jesus died for “MY” (her) sins.
2. Jesus rose again on the 3rd day.
3. Jesus went to heaven where he sits on the right side of God.

During a discussion the other day, Selena suddenly out of the clear blue asked, “Mama, when will I go to heaven?” Not really thinking about my answer I told her when she dies, she will go to heaven. Suddenly Selena said, “But I don’t want to die, I want everlasting life!” It hit me right then and there that Selena was not asking to go to heaven, but more of “Will I go to heaven?”

Quickly I back tracked to John 3:16, and asked her if she believed this verse? “Oh Yes, Grandma!” I then reminded her that Jesus had to die, and she quickly reminded me “Yes, He died for MY sins!” We then talked about how he rose again, and she reminded me “Yes, in 3 days!” I asked her what happened then and she told me, “He went to heaven!”

We then talked about our earthly bodies and our souls. She thought it was pretty cool that God actually gave her a soul, “This is the thing inside ME that makes ME who I am!”

I could now see the light bulb moment, as she realized, “My earthly body has to die, just like Jesus, then my soul will go to heaven! What happens then?” Once I explained that God will then give her soul a new body. She smiled, and said, “But I still do not want to die, not yet anyway, but I WILL go to heaven someday!”

Sometimes we forget that while our little ones can come to God’s Word easier then we do, they struggle with so many questions. You see Selena believed with all her heart that as it says in John 3:16, she would not perish (die) and have everlasting life (pass death and go to heaven).

Reading The Bible with Selena

We’ve started a new bedtime routine with Selena. We are having so much fun reading through the book of Luke together. I only read small portions to her. I am using her Zonderkidz NIV Bible.

While this is not the exact one we have it is basically the same just a little different picture on the front. I really like this Bible for the fact that Selena is able to follow along so easily. Also it is broke up with each section titled as to the subject.

Click on the picture to get a better view.

It has been fun to read short little sections with her. We begin by a quick recap of what we read the night before. Selena never ceases to amaze me with how much clarity that she can recall the section we read the night before, down to such detail. I always push her understanding with a few questions, most of the time she can answer my questions, if not then we go back and briefly reread the section before moving on.

We have made it up to where Jesus was baptized, and yes, Selena announced that He was baptized by John the Baptist, (remember she is really hooked on John the Baptist). Tonight we read about how Jesus was tempted by Satan for 40 days in the desert. Suddenly Selena recalled the fall of man, so we compared what happened to Adam and Eve to Jesus. She quickly caught on that man and woman could not stop themselves from the Serpent’s temptation, but Jesus could turn away from Satan, no matter what he tempted Him with.

I love the way she is able to identify any and all the verses she has learned for AWANA, through our reading. Sometimes her understanding just surpasses me. It might take us a long time but my plan is to read the entire Bible with Selena.

Reading

Even with two handbooks Selena is just surpassing all expectations in her AWANA work. To slow her down just a little bit we have been making her look up the verses in the Bible, and read them from there.

She still stumbles a bit with finding some of the books but once in the book she is quickly able to find the verse. She of course has to make sure the verse in the Bible says the same as it does in the handbook.

I came up with this idea last Sunday when we came home from church and Selena had to show me what they learned in Sunday school. I then helped her find what we learned in service. She read the words from the Bible so well, it truly surprised both of us.

While at times Selena tries to make us believe she isn’t able to read certain books, we know she can. I love how her reading is just exploding this year. Now if only she would start writing.

I am truly thankful that Selena has such a desire to learn.

Learning The Books of The Bible

Selena has been learning the books of the Bible, well in the Old Testament so far. She does very well except she gets confused when she gets to First Samuel and Second Samuel, and same with the Kings. She forgets the First one and jumps to the Second one. She will get it figured out.

One thing I have done is just leave her Bible sitting on the end table. She thumbs through it daily, sometimes taking time to read and look at the pictures, but also teaching Papa or I the order of the books.

We get such a kick out of her as she will start with Genesis and ask Papa which book comes next. She then flips through Genesis one page at a time until she comes to Exodus, lays her hand on the page and announces the name of the book. She asked me this morning if we can move on to the New Testament. While she is getting pretty proficient through the Old Testament, there is still some work to be done. I suppose we can move on to the New Testament unless I see her forgetting to drill herself on the Old Testament. I still need to show her how each book is broke down into chapters and how to find the scriptures, but I know that will come. I am proud of her love for the Bible and willingness to learn information that even many adults struggle with.