Sunday Evenings Very Short Story

Planetarium used to demonstrate the movement of the planets and their satellites, 1949

WHO MADE YOU?

Kirchner, famous astronomer, had a scientist friend who professed disbelief in God.  Visiting Kirchner one day, this friend was admiring a working model of the solar system that stood upon a table;  by turning a handle the planets could be made to revolve in their respective orbits round the sun.

     'Very ingenious indeed,'  he remarked.  'Who is the maker?'

     'Oh, nobody particular.'

     'But tell me, I want to know - who made it?'

     'Nobody made it.  It just made itself.'

     The friend began to see the point, and was annoyed.

     'I see, you are trying to be funny.'

     'Isn't it rather you that is funny?  You can't believe that this little model made itself, and yet you can believe that the real sun and moon and stars, the whole vast universe in fact, came into existence somehow without any Maker!'

     His friend went away rather thoughtful, and later changed his opinion.

     You, too, did not make yourself.  God made you - your body, allowing your parents to help Him;  your soul, direct from His own hands like a new coin from the Mint.  

Catechism Stories - Newman Press, 1949