Beginning in Genesis

The obvious lack of the mention of children in the first few chapters of Genesis would lead you to ask "Why start there?"

Because. Whether you believe creation happened in seven 24 hour days (God could do that if He wanted to) or whether you believe that a day is a thousand years in His sight, I'm guessing the stories of Creation and Adam and Eve were among the first stories that the first children heard.

Genesis starts with stories. We believe God's word is true but sometimes it comes in the form of a story. The details that God includes are important. Maybe just as important are the things He leaves out.

Children pretend the stories they hear. They act out the things they see and hear. They process life, they learn about living, through play. Imagine a small boy pretending to be God yelling, "Let there be light," or pretending to be his father or his mother or an animal, the moon, the sun...imagine the very first children acting out these first stories about God - God's stories.

The world was new, the people were new, creation was new. The stories were new.

The mandate to be fruitful and multiply leads me to believe there were grown up living things and baby living things early on. We know how children love living things, especially baby living things.

I'm guessing that children spent a great deal of time outside. Maybe they were more aware of other living creatures than most children are today. Maybe they took them for granted. Either way, their parents were responsible to care for all that God had made.

The older kids get, the more they want to know. Where did the sun come from again? An Aardvark? You called it an Aardvark? You're kidding! Why would you do a thing like that?

Why did God start with adults and not children? Maybe you think the answer's obvious but He's God. He didn't have to do it that way. And, wonder of wonders, He let Adam and Eve have children to teach and train even though they're the ones who got us all off to such a lousy start. Why didn't He just do it Himself?