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Why should I get my kids out into God's Creation?
Do you remember hopping off the bus after school, grabbing a snack and bolting for the outdoors to meet with friends? Later, you might have headed home from the adventure with soggy socks and stickers in your laces. Your cadence reflected both your concern for being late to dinner and the joyful anticipation you had for returning to that place tomorrow. Although you never stopped to think about it, (nor did anyone else back then), the past few hours had shaped you considerably. Helping your friend up that tree would leave you sore tomorrow, more aware of your ability to work with others and, most significantly, there was something special about that oak. Something about “your spot” on that fat limb next to the trunk. Your mom might have talked about God but this was the place where you knew, without a doubt, He was real.
People born before 1974 or so often have stories like this. But those who are younger, the “Millennial Generation,” quite often cannot relate at all. You probably have recognized how few of today’s youth spend time in nature and that some have never truly entered the natural world. We have learned, over time, to expect generational lifestyle changes because of a diminishing need and desire to be outside. But this time we are not just out in creation less than the generations before us, now we are almost not experiencing it at all. Among many concerns this reality produces, Kids in Creation is most alerted to a question too few parents and leaders are asking, “How does growing up indoors affect our spiritual development?” Have you ever read the following, “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.” Romans 1:20
We believe most students today have an “excuse.” To our knowledge there has never been a culture, so sheltered and distracted from what God has made. We have very comfortable, climate-controlling homes, autos, schools, gyms and places of work. If we need to go outside, it is usually a momentary requirement. Most of those who recreate or exercise outdoors use sidewalks or playing fields, rarely touching the natural world. And our innate desire to experience creation is squelched by a plethora of indoor inventions sophisticatedly designed to captivate our attention for hours on end. The majority of today’s young people have rarely, if ever, “clearly seen” God through what He has made.
Kids in Creation was born to see more youth experience God through His creation.
We must help this generation, and future ones, compensate for the spiritual void left by the lack of nature in their lives. Modern man has built gyms and learned 1000 techniques to “work out,” simulating the physical activity God designed for us in nature. They have also developed artificial, hands-on challenges for groups and individuals so we can learn “experientially,” attempting to replace the mental and social development brought about by the problem solving dilemmas we used to encounter naturally on a daily basis. But how have we compensated spiritually for the shortage of God’s creation in our lives? We cannot replace what can be “understood through what has been made” (by God) with modern techniques or inventions, but we can re-learn an appreciation for the unfathomable handiwork of our Creator. We can take people back into creation and introduce them to their all loving and all powerful Maker. Leaders and parents can be awakened to this critical and growing need. Kids in Creation seeks to inspire, train and equip parents and leaders to provide youth with this essential, fundamental root to a relationship with God.
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