A young, expectant mother was washing dishes when her four year old daughter came rushing in from playing outside. "Mommy," asked the little girl curiously and slightly out of breath, "where did I come from?"

     Mom paused while drying off her hands thoughtfully. Her mind raced. What should she say? Thoughts of storks and cabbage patches came to mind. "Maybe I could just say, `The hospital,' and leave it at that," she thought. "Of course, the truth is always better," she mused, "She'll find out soon enough..."

     The little girl interrupted her thoughts, "My friend Billy says he came from Toledo! Where did I come from?"

     We've all wondered from time to time where we came from. We generally start to question our origins at an early age. For some, the wonder soon goes away and they don't think much more about it. For others, the question remains and deepens as we grow older.

     "Where did I come from?" is a very important question. The answer has important ramifications for two other important questions: "Where am I going?" and "Why am I here?".

     The world says we came from a long line of evolutionary chance and circumstance, beginning with the big bang. A great nothingness, known as the Singularity and possessing no mass or energy suddenly for unknown and unknowable reasons exploded into a great fireball of matter and energy. According to the British physicist, Dr. Stephen Hawking, not even time existed until the Singularity exploded.

     Following the big bang we arose out of a series of fantastic occurrences which over billions of years and against all odds produced the building blocks of life and then finally life itself. Bit by bit over a few billion more years life organized itself into more and more complex forms which eventually pulled themselves out of the slime, into the oceans, up onto dry land, and finally into the halls of academia.

     Born of nothingness, existing by chance, we flicker briefly in the universe before fading back into nothingness. Our existence meaningless; our destination inescapable, we exist only by the chance results of a throw of the genetic dice.

     Inspiring, isn't it?

     No wonder so many people act like animals. No wonder so many people show such minute evidence of higher brain function and cannot hold a conversation without the letters d,f,g, and s. No wonder so many people's primary motivating factors are bodily desires and gut-level reactions. We shouldn't be surprised to see people act like slime when they have been told for years that they came from slime.

     The Bible, on the other hand, tells us, "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth (Genesis 1:1)." "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made (John 1:1-3)." "For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: (1 Corinthians 1:16)."

     According to God's Word every person that has ever lived or ever will live, from Adam on, is a unique creation of God. We are the result of a purposeful plan, not the by product of chance and circumstance.

     The first man, Adam, was formed and given life by God Himself: "And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul (Genesis 2:7)." Likewise, Genesis 2:21-22 tells us that Eve, the first woman, was created by a distinct creative act of God when He "...caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man."

     Like Adam and Eve, each and every one of us is a special, unique creation consisting of body, soul, and spirit created by the One who created the heavens and the earth. "Thus saith God the LORD, he that created the heavens, and stretched them out; he that spread forth the earth, and that which cometh out of it; he that giveth breath unto the people upon it, and spirit to them that walk therein (Isaiah 42:5)."

     Even the seemingly random combination of DNA at the moment of conception is ordered by God. "For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother's womb. I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvelous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well. My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them (Proverbs 139:13-16)."

     Personally, I find the the concept that I am a unique creation of Almighty God much more inspiring than the idea of being the chance result of the byproducts of a primordial explosion. It gives purpose and direction to my life. It gives me reason to sacrifice and strive to improve myself, my family, and my community.

     But which is more scientific to believe, evolution or creation? The surprising answer: neither! There is no way to scientifically prove or disprove either because we cannot reproduce either the big bang or creation in a controlled setting. To do so we would have to first recreate the conditions that existed prior to the beginning of the universe; conditions which by their very nature are irreproducible.

     Even trying to reproduce the origin of life in a test tube or trying to force one form of life to evolve into another would prove nothing, even if successful. Nothing, that is, except that by concerted effort, planning, and design we can produce life or provoke evolution under highly controlled conditions. It would not prove that life arose or evolved in that fashion.

     Likewise, even if we took empty test tube, prayed over it and then sat back and watched God create some new form of life in it we would prove nothing more than we can take a empty test tube, pray over it and then sit back and watch God create some new form of life in it.

     Ultimately, since neither can be scientifically proved or disproved, they both rest on faith. What we see is interpreted by what we believe. Those who reject God and reject His Word reject creation and cling to the big bang/evolution theory by faith. Those who believe in God and accept His Word as truth, believe-or at least should believe-in creation. Or, as my forest biology professor at Colorado State University put it in the early 1980's: "I choose to believe in evolution because the only other alternative is creation-and I don't want to believe that."

     I, on the other hand, choose to believe God and His Word rather than the "...profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called (1 Timothy 6:20)."