Schoolhouse Review: Purposeful Design

For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. (Rom 1:19-20)

I had just memorized these verses when I was received my latest review from Purposeful Design. I was extremely eager and have been very blessed to use the Purposeful Design: Understanding the Creation in our homeschool.

Jay Schabacker does a wonderful job explaining how God did exactly what Paul said in Romans. Our world was not simply made by an intelligent designer, but with a very specific purpose. It was designed for us. God made each one of us to have a relationship with Him and He made this planet for us to live on. He gave it so much love and care and in it we can see His eternal power and divine nature. It was purposefully designed.

The Purposeful Design: Understanding the Creation has 7 chapters, with each one focusing on a different day of creation. Each chapter begins with a beautiful display of God's creation over layed with the passage of Scripture that discusses that particular day. It's a hard back book, with thick pages and easy to read font and text, a definite bonus for my daughter who has special needs. Some chapters are long, and some are short. The book is about 95 pages in all. The stunning images throughout really enhance the message of how everything was magnificently and purposefully designed.

Now this is not simply a book that says on day 1 God made this and on day 2 He made that. It tells us first what was made and then goes into the significance of it. The book points out things like how each element of the water cycle is necessary for each other element and how our earth is set perfectly at 23 and 1/2 degrees. Any difference in any of these things would not provide the necessary components to sustain life! You get to explore vegetation and realize how important plants are to our daily lives and how the instincts of animals are miraculous and can't be explained by science. Then of course we learn about how amazingly unique human beings are! The book ends on God's day of rest, giving us some lovely Scriptures to meditate on.

Along with the book comes the Purposeful Design: Young Explorer's Club which is a FREE curriculum pack that goes along beautifully with the book. It has fill in the blank questions from the chapter, verses to study and memorize, questions for contemplation, and an area to draw something significant from each lesson. There is also a puzzle and certificate of completion at the end. This comes with both the student workbook and teacher's answer key. We used this and turned reading the book into an entire study in both science and the Bible!

We covered two chapters a week, but allowed for more time for chapters 4 and 6 since they were much longer. Gess really enjoyed reading the book and learned so much from it. She was truly excited and when I would say it was time for science she would run and get the book. I think her favorite lesson was chapter 4, The Fourth Day - Creation of the Sun, Moon, and Stars. Of course she does happen to be really into space right now. I learned things myself as well. For instance in chapter 4 it explains how the first three days of creation were the "preparation" for the next three days of creation which are the "filling." I had never thought of it that way but it's true! Days 1,2, and 3 are necessary to place the things created in days 4, 5, and 6. God is so amazing!

Purposeful Design: Understanding the Creation sells for $18.95 and is for all ages. You can read it to your youngest children who will just love the bright, engaging images and older students as well as adults will find some helpful apologetics. I would highly recommend this to every Christian family. To learn more about the book visit the Purposeful Design website or see what other members of the Schoolhouse Review Crew thought about it by clicking on the banner below.