I'm Thankful for the World God Made

Each day until Thanksgiving, Everyday Truth is looking at a different reason to be thankful in a family devotional. Use these devotionals with your kids to help keep your family focused on giving thanks. If you missed the introductory post, check it out here for directions on creating a "Thanksgiving wall." When you're done wiht the devotional head on over to the Everyday Truth Facebook page and join in the discussion of why we're thankful for God's creation.

Have you ever seen a platypus? It's a funny looking creature, with a beak like a duck and a tail like a beaver. It can swim and live on land. I don't know about you, but if I had been making up animals, I probably wouldn't have come up with the platypus. But God did.

God also created the elephant and the fly, the blue whale and the hummingbird. God made the ostrich, a bird that can't fly, and the flying squirrel, a squirrel that can. I have a pretty good imagination, but I doubt I could have come up with the wide variety of animals that God did.

Not only did God put an amazing assortment of animals on the earth, He created the flowers, the trees, the grass, the desert, the ocean and the rivers. He made parts of the earth warm all the time and parts of the earth so cold all the time that it's impossible for people to live there.

God spent six days making the world and everything in it. And when He was done, He declared that it was good. Psalm 146:6 says "He is the Maker of heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them— he remains faithful forever." God made everything in the world, from the smallest grain of sand to the largest elephant.

God could have made everything the same color and the same size. Imagine how boring that would be. He could have given us just one kind of food to eat. Every animal and flower could have looked the same. But He didn't. He filled the world with color and variety so we could enjoy His creation.

When you're outside today, take some time to look around. Notice the things God has made. See the beautiful array of colors and listen for the different sounds in the world. Find one thing in the world God made that makes you smile. Thank God for the amazing variety found in His creation.

Write down one thing you saw today in God's creation that made you thankful. Add it to your Thanksgiving wall. Pray and thank God for making such a beautiful world.