Every morning, I hear more and more birds beginning to chirp and sing. Before the sun comes up, they get an early start outside my bedroom window. This is just one of the many changes coming with the arrival of springtime. I love it. Life is beginning to reemerge from the cold grip of winter.

I’m a fairly simple person and it’s quite ironic, given my high school English grades, that any of you would even read these thoughts flowing from my puny, little brain. However, living the simple life is not completely bad. I personally believe that simple living, common sense and a love for the Lord create a winning combination.

Common sense taps me on the shoulder each day and tells me to simply look around. We would do ourselves a favor by closing some of our “educational” science textbooks and listening to common sense.

Common sense tells me that I did not evolve from any monkey or lower life form. I can trace my entire family back to Route 2, China Grove. From there, the various sides of my family are traced back to other countries. Common sense tells me that there was not a single monkey or other lower life form in the mix. You may disagree.

My simple mindedness keeps taking me back to Genesis

1:1 “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”

If there is a creation, there has to be a Creator. I love my dog, but he is still a dog. You and I are created in the image of God. We have superior intelligence. We are able to remember, accumulate, evaluate, and store vast amounts of information. We possess qualities of consciousness and self-awareness.

Beyond all of the above, we humans have a unique moral dimension. We are able to process between right and wrong.

One of the biggest differences is that we have a spiritual dimension. God has created within us the knowledge of something beyond what we can see and feel.

Don’t go through today only looking at science through a text book. Instead, get up and go outside. Take a look around you and allow common sense to speak to you.

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The Rev. Trent Patterson is the pastor of Beulah Heights Wesleyan Church in Troutman, North Carolina.