Have you felt confused about climate change? It’s challenging enough to untangle the facts for ourselves, let alone help our kids understand what is—or isn’t—happening. Even more important than understanding what might be taking place and its future implications is helping our kids view this discussion from a Biblical perspective. They can enter into the climate conversation unafraid when they grasp God’s plan for the universe. So let’s venture back to where climate change began: in the garden of Eden.

Climate Change Began in the Garden of Eden

One of the consequences of Adam and Eve’s sin in the garden was that this planet is now cursed. In Genesis 3:17, God told Adam, “cursed is the ground because of you.” Since then, we have seen pestilence, disease, drought, and decay. This intensified following the global flood. The flood was the most significant climate change event in history. It was catastrophic and carried aftershocks of earthquakes, volcanic activity, magnificent storms, and other natural disasters for centuries after (source: Answers In Genesis, Post-Flood World)

Climate change alarmists would like us to believe that what we see happening to our planet is new and an immediate threat. Yet it seems natural for our world to be constantly changing. This even agrees with the Darwinian theory of evolution, to see an ever-adapting planet. 

Is The World Warming Up?

In my new book Rooted In Wonder, I recognize that the earth is warming. From 1880 to 1980, the combined land and water temperature rose about 1.3 degrees Fahrenheit. Since 1981, that rate has roughly doubled. Some scientists will point to this and make a correlation between warming temperatures and mankind’s technological advancements, and the burning of fossil fuels. And there very well might be a connection. However, in his book A Different Shade of Green, Dr. Gordon Wilson identifies a possible hole in this theory (at least reason to dig deeper.) He points out that although the burning of fossil fuels continued to increase, there was a “global warming hiatus” between 1998 and 2012, where temperatures remained steady.

We can also consider that warming and cooling temperatures might be one of the many incredible cycles and systems God engineered into the universe. This is, after all, not the first time the planet has warmed up. The Medieval Warming Period from about 800 – 1200 AD, when average temperatures were slightly higher than what we’re seeing now, certainly wasn’t caused by burning fossil fuels. 

It is essential that, as stewards of God’s incredible creation, we consider our actions and how they might affect what God has made. There is no reason to make it a less desirable habitation before its time is done. But we also must not cave to unproven exaggerations or put our focus in the wrong place. When our children ask about a warming earth, we can steer them away from dramatized statements from the media and to God’s truth.

Guiding Our Kids to God’s Truth in Climate Change

From the perspective of an unbeliever, alarm concerning climate change makes perfect sense. The idea of the home planet burning up is terrifying because, to them, this is all we get. However, as believers, we know the earth has an end date, and God has “set eternity in the human heart” (Ecclesiastes 3:11). 

The Bible even points to the earth’s expiration involving intense heat. In Isaiah 24:6, we see the curse in Eden coming full circle at the end of earth’s time, “Therefore a curse devours the earth, and its inhabitants suffer for their guilt; therefore the inhabitants of the earth are scorched, and few men are left.”

This is a bleak picture. However, by helping our kids see this through the lens of God’s ultimate plan, we can help them understand that God is entirely in control and that nature bows at His command. We cannot stop pulling the thread of climate change once we hit fear—this only leaves a tangled mess of uncertainties. Instead, we must keep unthreading the conversation until we arrive at reason and peace. 

Pointing Our Kids to God’s Peace in Climate Change

We don’t need to be afraid when we understand God’s plan and rest secure in his salvation and our eternity with him. As you explain to your children that because this world is broken by sin, God is working to make all things new, they can gain confidence and peace in light of God’s plans. 

You can help your children recognize God’s power over nature by reading the story of Jesus calming a storm in Mark 4:25-41. With the power of his words, Jesus commanded the storm, “Peace! Be Still!” After witnessing the event, his disciples asked with astonishment, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”

My family personally experienced a natural disaster when the largest wildfire in Colorado’s written history burned within miles of our home. Perhaps you or your family have been affected by a natural disaster. Whether a personal or peripheral experience, we can assure our kids that God is in control amid nature’s roar. We can enjoy and care for his creation without anxiety concerning its future or ours.

Helping Our Kids See God’s Hope Amid Climate Change

Our God is a god of order, not chaos or confusion. So whenever we feel confused in the climate change conversation, we can return to the order and reasonableness of His Word. The hope we have amid the reality of a perishing planet is this: God is making all things new! We’re assured in Revelation 21:1, 5, “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. . . And he who was seated on the throne said, ‘Behold, I am making all things new.’”

When my kids ask me what the new earth will be like, I tell them I believe it will be like this earth, only how it was supposed to be, as it was portrayed in the garden of Eden. It won’t be broken. It will be everything beautiful without any of the bad. 

This planet is a fractured reflection of the Maker, like a broken mirror only giving us bits and pieces of the complete picture. We can assure our kids that although it will end, God is everlasting, and he is making all things new so we can spend eternity in his perfect presence.

Hebrews 1:10–12 says:

“You, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning,

    and the heavens are the work of your hands;

they will perish, but you remain;

    they will all wear out like a garment,

like a robe you will roll them up,

    like a garment they will be changed.

But you are the same,

    and your years will have no end.”

We can equip our kids with truth, peace, and hope in the climate change conversation as we point them to the Creator who made and sustains all things. “For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” Colossians 1:16-17

Learn about climate change and conservation from a biblical perspective in my new book:

Rooted In Wonder: Nurturing Your Family’s Faith Through God’s Creation

Another great resource on this topic is Dr. Gordon Wilson’s book:

A Different Shade of Green