I KNOW something wonderful. Would you like to hear it?— Look at your hand. Bend your fingers. Now pick something up. Your hand can do many things, and it can do them well. Do you know who made our hands?—

Yes, it was the same One who made our mouth, our nose, and our eyes. It was God, the Father of the Great Teacher. Aren’t we glad that God gave us eyes?— We can see many things with them. We can look at flowers. We can look at the green grass and the blue sky. We may even see hungry little birds like the ones in the picture. Really, it is marvelous that we can see things like this, isn’t it?—

But who made these things? Did some man make them? No. Men can make a house. But no man can make grass that grows. Men cannot make a baby bird, a flower, or any other living thing. Did you know that?—

God is the one who made all these things. God made the heavens and the earth. He made people too. He created the first man and the first woman. Jesus, the Great Teacher, taught this.—Matthew 19:4-6.

How did Jesus know that God made man and woman? Did Jesus see God do it?— Yes, he did. Jesus was with God when God made man and woman. Jesus was the first person that God made. Jesus was an angel, and he lived in heaven with his Father.

The Bible tells us that God said: "Let us make man." (Genesis 1:26) Do you know whom God was talking to?— He was talking to his Son. He was talking to the one who later came to earth and became Jesus.

Isn’t that exciting? Just think! When we listen to Jesus, we are being taught by the one who was with God when God made the earth and all other things. Jesus learned much from working with his Father in heaven. No wonder Jesus is the Great Teacher!

Do you think that God was unhappy about being alone before he made his Son?— No, he wasn’t. Well, if he was not unhappy, why did he make other living things?— He did this because he is a God of love. He wanted others to live and enjoy life. We should thank God that he gave us life.

Everything that God has done shows his love. God made the sun. The sun gives us light and keeps us warm. Everything would be cold and there would be no life on earth if we did not have the sun. Aren’t you glad that God made the sun?—

God makes it rain too. Sometimes you may not like the rain because you can’t go outside to play when it rains. But the rain helps the flowers to grow. So when we see beautiful flowers, whom are we going to thank for them?— God. And to whom should we give thanks when we eat fruits and vegetables that taste good?— We should thank God because it is his sun and rain that make things grow.

Suppose that someone asks you, ‘Did God make man and the animals too?’ What would you say?— It is correct to say: "Yes, God made man and the animals." But what if someone does not believe that God really made humans? What if he or she says that man came from animals? Well, the Bible does not teach that. It says that God created all living things.—Genesis 1:26-31.

But someone may tell you that he does not believe in God. What will you say then?— Why not point to a house? Ask the person: "Who made that house?" Everyone knows that someone had to make it. The house certainly did not make itself!—Hebrews 3:4.

Then take the person to a garden and show him a flower. Ask him: "Who made this?" No man did. And just as the house did not make itself, so this flower did not make itself either. Someone made it. God did.

Ask the person to stop and listen to the song of a bird. Then ask him: "Who made the birds and taught them to sing?" God did. God is the one who made the heavens and the earth and all living things! He is the One who gives life.

Yet, someone may say that he believes only what he can see. He may say: ‘If I can’t see it, I don’t believe it.’ So some people say they don’t believe in God because they can’t see him.

It is true that we cannot see God. The Bible says: ‘No man can see God.’ No man, woman, or child on earth can see God. So no one should try to make a picture or an image of God. God even tells us not to make an image of him. So, then, it would not please God for us to have things like that in our house.—Exodus 20:4, 5; 33:20; John 1:18.

But if you cannot see God, how do you know that there really is a God? Think about this. Can you see the wind?— No. Nobody can see the wind. But you can see the things the wind does. You can see the leaves move when the wind blows through the branches of a tree. So you believe that there is wind.

You can see the things God has done too. When you see a living flower or a bird, you see something that God has made. So you believe that there really is a God.

Someone might ask you, ‘Who made the sun and the earth?’ The Bible says: "God created the heavens and the earth." (Genesis 1:1) Yes, God made all these wonderful things! How do you feel about that?—

Isn’t it wonderful to be alive? We can hear the beautiful songs of the birds. We can see the flowers and the other things that God has made. And we can eat the foods that God has given us.

For all these things, we should thank God. Most of all, we should thank him for giving us life. If we are really thankful to God, we will do something. What is that?— We will listen to God, and we will do what he tells us in the Bible. In that way we can show that we love the One who made all things.

We should show appreciation to God for all that he has done. How? Read what is written at Psalm 139:14 (138:14, "Douay Version"); John 4:23, 24; 1 John 5:21; and Revelation 4:11.

A Letter From a Loving God

TELL me, which book do you like best of all?— Some children would pick one that tells about animals. Others would choose a book with lots of pictures in it. It can be fun to read those books.

But the best books in all the world are the ones that tell us the truth about God. One of those books is more precious than all the others. Do you know which one it is?— The Bible.

Why is the Bible so important?— Because it came from God. It tells us about him and about the good things that he will do for us. And it shows us what we should do in order to please him. It is like a letter from God.

Now God could have written the whole Bible in heaven and then given it to man. But he didn’t. Even though the ideas came from God, he used his servants on earth to do most of the writing of the Bible.

How did God do that?— To understand how, consider this. When we hear the voice of someone on the radio, the voice may come from a person who is far away. When we watch television, we can even see pictures of people in other countries of the world, and we can hear what they are saying.

Men can even go all the way to the moon in their spaceships, and they can send messages back to the earth from there. Did you know that?— If men can do that, can God send messages from heaven?— Of course he can! And he did it long before men had radio or television.

Moses was a man who actually heard God speak. Moses could not see God, but he could hear God’s voice. Millions of people were there when this happened. In fact, on that day God caused a whole mountain to shake, and there was thunder and lightning. The people knew that God had spoken, but they were very scared. So they told Moses: "Let not God speak with us for fear we may die." Later, Moses wrote down the things that God had said. And what Moses wrote is in the Bible.—Exodus 20:18-21.

Moses wrote the first five books of the Bible. But he was not the only one who wrote. God used about 40 men to write parts of the Bible. These men lived a long, long time ago, and it took many years for the Bible to be finished. Yes, it took a period of about 1,600 years! What is amazing is that even though some of these men never met one another, everything they wrote is in absolute agreement.

Some men who were used by God to write the Bible were famous. Although Moses had been a shepherd, he became the leader of the nation of Israel. Solomon was a king who was both the wisest and the richest man in the world. But other writers were not so well-known. Amos took care of trees that grew figs.

In addition, one Bible writer was a medical doctor. Do you know his name?— It was Luke. Another writer had been a tax collector. His name was Matthew. Still another had been a lawyer, an expert in Jewish religious law. He wrote more books of the Bible than anyone else. Do you know his name?— It was Paul. And Jesus’ disciples Peter and John, who also were Bible writers, had been fishermen.

Many of these Bible writers wrote about things that God was going to do in the future. How did they know those things before they even happened?— God had given those men the information. He had told them what would happen.

By the time that Jesus, the Great Teacher, was on earth, a big part of the Bible had been written. Now, remember, the Great Teacher had been in heaven. He knew what God had done. Did he believe that the Bible was from God?— Yes, he did.

When Jesus talked to people about the works of God, he read from the Bible. Sometimes he told them from memory what it said. Jesus also brought us more information from God. Jesus said: "The very things I heard from him I am speaking in the world." (John 8:26) Jesus had heard many things from God because he had lived with God. And where can we read those things that Jesus said?— In the Bible. It was all written down for us to read.

Of course, when God used men to write, they wrote in the language that they used every day. So most of the Bible was written in Hebrew, some in Aramaic, and a lot of it in Greek. Since most people today do not know how to read those languages, the Bible has been put into other languages. Today parts of the Bible can be read in over 2,260 languages. Just think of that! The Bible is God’s letter to people everywhere. But no matter how many times it has been copied, the message is from God.

What the Bible says is important for us. It was written a long time ago. But it tells about things that are happening today. And it tells us what God is going to do in the near future. What it says is exciting! It gives us a wonderful hope.

The Bible also tells us how God wants us to live. It tells us what is right and what is wrong. You need to know this, and so do I. It tells us about people who did bad things and what happened to them, so that we can avoid the trouble they had. It also tells us about people who did right and the good results that came to them. It was all written down for our good.

But to get the most out of the Bible, we need to know the answer to a question. The question is this: Who gave us the Bible? What would you say?— Yes, the whole Bible is from God. How, then, can we show that we are really wise?— By listening to God and by doing what he says.

So we need to take time to read the Bible together. When we get a letter from someone we love very much, we read it again and again. It is precious to us. That is the way the Bible should be to us because it is a letter from the One who loves us most. It is a letter from a loving God.

Take a few more minutes now to read these scriptures that show that the Bible truly is God’s Word, written for our benefit: Romans 15:4; 2 Timothy 3:16, 17; and 2 Peter 1:20, 21.