By Brea Cannon
Connecting Creed and Life
Editor’s note: For 2025, the weekly Connecting Faith and Life column will be renamed Connecting Creed and Life. To celebrate the 2025 Jubilee Year and the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea, the columns will consist of reflections on the Nicene Creed, corresponding with related paragraphs in the “Catechism of the Catholic Church” (CCC).
“Maker of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible” (cf. CCC 337-354).
As part of our schooling, my children’s science classes cover a variety of topics — one particular unit is the solar system. This topic at times can appear complex for young scholars. Despite the complexities and mysteries of space and the solar system, the simplicity, wonder and awe of our solar system are not too advanced for even the youngest of learners.
I recently taught a science lesson about the earth’s orbit around the sun and the resulting seasons for our weekly homeschool co-op. The student classes ranged from ages 3-10 or 11. As I prepped the material and demonstration, the science lesson seemed difficult to cater to the wide range of ages in the four classes. To my astonishment, each class comprehended the lesson in its own range of understanding. The youngest class enjoyed a game like musical chairs “orbiting” around a classmate who represented the sun, and the older classes enjoyed the heat and light demonstration with a lamp and globe.
The lesson was taught through the lens that the solar system was created by God for his glory and our wonder and amazement. With this understanding of the created world, each scholar, regardless of age, was able to connect the intrigue and wonder of the solar system to God and the creation story. I was inspired to hear the youngest class of scholars making comments like, “If space is this big, heaven must be REALLY big!” and “How does God keep everything moving around the sun?”
God willed that creation work in unison with man. He orchestrated interdependence of all creation — the bee needs the flower, and the flower needs the sun and the sun warms the earth which provides resources for God’s summit of all creation, man. God created man in his own image and designed all things to work “for good with those who love Him” (Romans 8:28). Each aspect of creation was fashioned to bring God delight and to establish order and laws. These aspects in nature and creation give us assurance of God’s protection and care — As Jesus said, “Are not five sparrows sold for two coins? And not one of them is forgotten in the sight of God. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not: you are of more value than many sparrows” (Luke 12:6-7).
Just a few days after the solar system demonstration, I helped my daughter work on a math lesson; she was studying geometry, specifically hexagons. Her course book explained how God uses the hexagon shape frequently in nature. The geometry lesson intrigued my daughter and sparked some wonder in her. We decided to take a pause from the math lesson and further investigate hexagons in nature. After finding some pictures in a nature book and watching some videos, we were able to see many examples of how God uses the hexagon to create order, symmetry and patterns in nature. From the eyes of insects, wasp nests, salt blocks, turtle shells and honey comb to some chemical compounds and elements, God designed and uses the hexagon shape to establish order in nature and in the sciences.
As I learn right alongside my children, God’s hand in this visible world is evident. It was astonishing how through the lens of faith, these everyday lessons can point our hearts and minds to our creator.
All of creation both visible and invisible is ordered, specifically ordered towards God’s glory. We can see this in the laws of nature and the design that allows nature and science to orchestrate interdependently. Everything, think about that, everything was created — sun, moon, earth, oceans, creatures and man — by God in six days, and on the seventh day, he rested. On that seventh day, he looked at all that he had made and found it good (Genesis 1:1-31).
Take a walk, look up at the stars, find symmetry and geometry in nature, marvel in the design of ordinary fruits and vegetables, look at your neighbor, it was all created to lead us closer to God, to worship him. “Nothing exists that does not owe its existence to God the Creator” (CCC 338).
Brea Cannon is a Diocese of Evansville native and member of St. Peter Parish in Montgomery with her husband, three children and extended family.