When You Rise: Creation Unit (Day 7)

Day 7 of Creation is really kind of tricky when it comes to "doing" activities because on this day God rested from "doing."  He had finished his Creation and set the day aside as holy.

So, we "rested" by reviewing. We took a look back at all that God had made and saw once again how good it really was.

We "rested" and re-read the account of Creation in several of our Bibles.

We "rested" while we watched these two videos on Creation:

http://vimeo.com/11156584 (This one is pretty cool! In this video, the account of Creation is read directly from Scripture with real life video and photos of his creation. It's well done and only about 5 min. long)

http://kids4truth.com/dyna/creation/english.aspx (I like this one as well and this was Isaac's favorite of the two. It's an animated version with text on the screen that you will have to read aloud to younger ones.)

I was actually really surprised with how much both boys liked these videos. I bet we watched them a total of 6 or 7 times, which I was great with because it was basically just a word for word retelling of the Scripture!

We also did a really fun review activity that I will blog about soon!

Small aside: I have a small pet peeve in relation to Day 7 of Creation and how it is typically portrayed. Nearly everything that can be found for kids shows some idea of sleeping. The picture we had from the set we've been coloring was of a pillow and "Zzzzz's" floating above it. One of our children's Bibles had all of God's creation sleeping peacefully on the ground in their depiction of Day 7. I understand why it's portrayed that way... when we think of rest, sleep is the first thing that comes to mind.

BUT, I'm not a fan of this because I think it can give children the wrong idea about God. He did not rest because he was tired. God never sleeps.  In God's Big Picture by Vaughan Roberts, he says, "The writer of Genesis ends his description of each of the other days with the words, 'And there was evening and there was morning -- the first (etc.) day.' But no such end to the seventh day is recorded; it continues. In a sense, God has rested ever since. He lives in a continuing Sabbath, the seventh day."

In fact, we read in Hebrews 4:9-10 "So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his works as God did from his." Someday, after Christ returns, we will enter fully into that rest! (Roberts, 33)

Now, obviously, this is not something that Isaac is ready for, but I feel it would do him a disservice to plant the thought in his mind that his almighty God needs a rest in the sense that we think of it.

So there's my two cents. ;)

Our song for Day 7 comes from I Can Teach My Child! Our wording was very similar. I changed "in His" to "up in." Also, please excuse the lighting and the Isaac's "grand finale." He was a little hyper when I recorded Day 6 and 7. If you want the correct tune, listen to it on I Can Teach My Child. :)