Purposeful Design - a Crew Review

What happens when a former Nasa employee writes a coffee table style book on creation? You get Purposeful Design: Understanding the Creation by Jay Schabacker at Purposeful Design. We were privileged to review this book for the Schoolhouse Review Crew. Mr. Schabacker's past, and his attention to details large and small, both while working with the Apollo Moon Program, and while working in business and personal investment shine through in this beautiful 90 page hardback book. 

The text of this book presents the week of creation, and several compelling evidences for a Purposeful Designer, while photos and illustrations delight the eye. I appreciated this in-depth, but not overwhelming, look at how several parts of our universe point directly back to God as the Creator. Each section begins with a lovely photo highlighting the portion of the Genesis story for each day of creation week. Mr. Schabacker approaches the creation of our world with wonder and awe, just as we should! He tells about how today's science can help us understand just how specifically each part of our universe was designed for our benefit. I really liked how in the Day three section Mr. Schabacker reminds us of how regularly consistent the sun rises and sets, and how mariners can plan their work around the regularity of the tides that are pulled by the moon.

This book would make a great read-aloud for your family, or a basis for studying the creation week with your children or students. If you're wanting your students to study creation, Mr. Schabacker has created a "Young Explorer's Club" curriculum to go alongside the Purposeful Design book. This free downloadable curriculum has a section for each day of creation (3-5 pages) that corresponds to what you will read in the book. The curriculum asks the student to really think and search out what God did during each day, and how He did it for our benefit. There is a section to choose their favorite part of the creation story and make it their own memory verse. You could use this with your elementary students with some help from Mom and Dad, or a classroom teacher, while I think your Middle School ages students could work independently on the curriculum and then discuss it. This could make a quality seven or eight week co-op class.

Purposeful Design would make a great gift for your own family, or to bless another family. Appropriate to use with all ages, this book will appeal to both children and adults with its variety of great photography. The book contains not only the creation story, but many other Scripture references that point to God's creation and His great loving care of us. This book could be used as an outreach tool to share with non-Christians. The book sells for $18.95. Because of his great love for reaching others with the love of Christ, Mr. Schabacker offers bulk discounts if you wish to purchase 10 or more copies.

Emily (age 16) joined me in reviewing this book. Here are her thoughts:

Purposeful Design: Understanding the Creation is a beautiful book that talks simply and thoroughly about the creation week. Its chapters each start with verses from Genesis 1 and then continue by talking about the subject in question with interesting facts and colorful pictures. Chapter 6 in particular goes into detail by talking about different features of the human body. Chapter 7 quotes many verses about the works of God and how, while we admire all of creation, we can never fully comprehend it all. Each chapter is small, making it the perfect size for a family devotional or a book for before bed.

You can reach Jay Schabacker many ways:
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His Blog

Dozens of Crew families reviewed Purposeful Design: Understanding the Creation, click below to read all their reviews.