What is history? Merriam Webster defines history as: a chronological record of significant events, often including an explanation of their causes. It occurred to me recently that history has a birthday. God tells us about history’s birthday in the very first verse of the Bible: 

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
Genesis 1:1 NASB

In the chronological record of significant events, the first event is Creation. The first chapter of Genesis tells us the cause of that significant event. God spoke and things started to happen. The crowning event of Creation was when God made people in His very own image. 

Since the first day of Creation, people have been doing things–doing things alone, with each other, and with the things that God made. History is the chronological record of what has happened since Creation. Most of the history people study involves people, the one creation that God made in His image.

When God created the world, He created a masterpiece. I love spending time in God’s creation and I love learning about it. One of my particular joys in writing history from a Christian point of view is explaining how people have used the intelligence God placed in their hearts and minds and the strength He gave their bodies to use what He provides in such abundance in Creation. 

The history curriculum I write is history, but it is also geography. All history happens in a place God made. It happens along coastlines, on prairies, in mountains, beside lakes, and within forests. I encourage children to be in constant awe of what God has created—both the physical places He made and the people whom God in His wisdom has placed in certain places. By learning about what God made, we learn about Him:

As the apostle Paul wrote in Romans 1:20:

For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and His divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made . . . .