Creation clock
by David Catchpoole
Photo by Len Wallace
There’s a clock in Grenfell, New South Wales, Australia, which is not your
average timepiece.
Dubbed ‘The Creation Clock’ by its maker, local identity Len Wallace,
it tells you not just the time of day but also the days of Creation—Genesis 1 being inscribed in brass on the right-hand side
of the clock casing.1 Engraved
pictorial relief depicts the Garden of Eden, and if you search intently, you will
be able to find 66 birds (some are cleverly hidden!)—a reminder of the number
of books in the Bible. Similarly, the roof of the clock’s ‘theatre’
has 66 stars. One star is silver—intended to represent the Star of Bethlehem.2 The Earth, which ‘hangs
upon nothing’, is prominent in the top-left of the theatre, with Job 26:7 engraved nearby.
Photo by Len Wallace
You need time to take it all in. There’s a sculpture of Eve admiring the fruit
(with the serpent visible in the tree), a slain animal to provide coverings for
Adam and Eve (a reminder too of death as a consequence of sin), and Noah holding
a hammer as he works on the Ark. Different kinds of animals are depicted everywhere—including
dinosaurs. You can also see Abraham with Isaac, Moses and the Israelites crossing
the Red Sea, Samson bringing down the temple of Dagon, David and Goliath, Daniel,
King Nebuchadnezzar, and Jonah inside the big fish.
And suddenly … Eve moves! As the clock marks the hour, Eve reaches out and
picks the fruit from the tree. Noah, too, springs to life, hammering away at his
task. And, for a period of three minutes, two of each kind of animal move across
the floor of the theatre, marching into the Ark.
Photo by Len Wallace
Len’s aim in building the clock (it took him three years, using recycled brass,
copper, silver and jewels) was to draw people’s attention to the biblical
truth of Creation—‘the foundation of the Christian faith’. He
told us of his own personal struggle in the past3
with depression and how he found strength in his Christian faith. Len hopes that
for passers-by4 the clock
will jog their memories of these historical events in the Bible, ‘that they
might seek out the account in Scripture, and thereby be opened to the Spirit’.
It’s certainly refreshing to see this ‘Creation Clock’, reflecting
as it does a true history of time, rather than the widely-proclaimed evolutionary
millions-of-years timeframe. And, just as this timepiece has obviously been designed
(just as William Paley5
observed: a watch needs a watchmaker), how much more so living things,
which are staggeringly more complex (see pp. 20–23).
References and notes
- The whole clock structure is about the height of an average
adult. Return to text.
- Note that the star referred to in Matthew 2:9–10 was the ‘Shekinah glory’—not
what modern astronomy calls a ‘star’. See DeYoung, D.,
What was the Star of Bethlehem?, <creation.com/starbeth>.
Return to text.
- A Vietnam war veteran, Len ran a rural business for a number
of years prior to his recent retirement. Return to text.
- The ‘Creation Clock’ is prominently displayed
at his gallery at Fitchs Lane, Grenfell, New South Wales, 2810, Australia. Viewing
by arrangement; phone: 0427 317 902 (International: +61 427 317902).
Return to text.
- Paley, W., Natural Theology, first published 1802,
republished by Bill Cooper as Paley’s Watchmaker, New Wine Press,
Chichester, England, pp. 29–31, 1995. Return to text.
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