Creation Truth in a Comic Strip

Psalm 146:1-2
“Praise ye the LORD. Praise the LORD, O my soul. While I live will I praise the LORD: I will sing praises unto my God while I have any being.”

I admit it. I enjoy reading comic strips from time to time. I especially love the single-panel “Far Side” cartoons by Gary Larson. He’s one of the only cartoonists who has repeatedly focused on the foolishness of evolution and gotten away with it.

Christian cartoonist Johnny Hart (1931-2007) But perhaps my favorite cartoonist is the late Johnny Hart. He is famous for his award-winning “B.C.” and “Wizard of Id” comic strips. Chuck Colson once referred to Hart as “the most widely read Christian of our time.”

In one of my favorite comic strips, a character named Wiley sits under a tree, writing a poem called “The Seed.” Let me read some of it to you.

“A seed is such a miraculous thing,” Wiley writes. “It can sit on a shelf forever, but how it knows what to do, when it’s stuck in the ground, is what makes it so clever. It draws nutrients from the soil through its roots and gathers its force from the sun.”

Wiley then writes about how the seed reproduces itself, and how the new plant receives everything it needs from its environment. In the last panel, Wiley writes, “Perhaps all of this is a product of love.” And finally he wonders: “And perhaps it happened by chance” … which he quickly answers, “Yeah, sure.”

Imagine that – creation truth in a comic strip! Hart often sparked controversy by incorporating overtly Christian themes and messages like this into his work. Perhaps he set an example that all Christians should follow!

Prayer: Heavenly Father, even if I’m not in full-time ministry, I know that You want me to share biblical truth with the people I come in contact with. Lord, give me wisdom and boldness to testify what Jesus has done in my life. Amen.

Author: Steven J. Schwartz
Ref: Comic strip reproduced in Bruce Malone’s book Search for the Truth, p. A-13 (Search for the Truth Ministries, 2001). Photo: Christian cartoonist Johnny Hart (1931-2007). (Fair Use)