Lesson Notes: How Can We Know?

Last month we focused on the family: families in general and your family in particular, and we hope you spent some time taking a closer look at just how amazing your family is. No matter what your family looks like – 1 child or 10, single parent, grandparents, cousins or not, adopted siblings, birth parents – YOU are a collection of unique and unrepeatable individuals and that makes your family absolutely one of a kind. We’re all broken in different ways, but there is also a beauty in entrusting even that to Jesus and seeing how He works through it.  Whatever your family makeup and whatever your situation, God has put you together for a reason and that’s worth celebrating.

This month, we are taking a closer look at Jesus. You probably know that we celebrate His birth at Christmas, but why was He born and how can we know it’s true?

God created all of us out of love to live in communion with Him, but that friendship was broken with the first sin of Adam and Eve and every other sin we’ve all committed after that. But God never gives up on us.  He wants us to truly know Him so we can truly love Him, so He sent His son so we would know what He’s like. Jesus said, “If you have seen me, you have seen the Father.” (Jn 14:9)

So, this month we’re taking a closer look at Jesus, and right away we’re starting with a question. How can we know that He’s real and who He said He is?

If you study philosophy, you might encounter logical arguments for God’s existence. St. Thomas Aquinas has five famous ways to prove the existence of God, but you don’t have to study philosophy to answer this question.  Just go outside and look around. The Catechism of the Catholic Church tells us that the beauty of nature reflects the infinite beauty of the Creator.  God gives us all ways to come to know Him.

  • In this first lesson we’re going to learn about all the infinite details of nature being orderly and how that orderliness teaches us that the Creator is real and that He sets things in an order we can trust.
  • Nature is filled with variety and that teaches us that God is real and there are no limits to His imagination.
  • Nature is very complex, and while science is always revealing more and more of those details, God is infinitely powerful and we will NEVER understand Him fully.
  • Everything God creates is connected and this part takes a look at God’s loving care for us.

And finally, all of this is an amazing gift with much to teach us about the nature of God’s goodness.

To help reinforce this lesson, we have an active activity and a prayer activity for your family.

After spending all this time talking about nature, the obvious next step is to go outside and experience it! The Creation Scavenger Hunt will help give a picture of God’s amazing imagination and power. And the prayer is a simple litany taken from Daniel 3:57-82. You’ll need a leader for each line and then everyone else will simply reply with “bless the Lord.” It’s so simple even your littlest kids can join in!