A Case in the Caverns

When the Wanders showed up at Mammoth Cave in Kentucky, the kids had a choice: take pictures of trees with Mom above ground or join Dad on his research project under ground.

“It’s the world’s largest cave system!” Dad had promised.

Drip. Drip. Drip.

“They found a shark fossil down there!”

Drip. Drip. Drip.

“Would you rather spelunk or look at trees?”

Drip. Drip. Drip.

Andy and Eva wished they’d chosen the trees.

Down in the cave, they quickly discovered that they wouldn’t be adventuring through secret passages to find ancient shark fossils. Instead, they stood inside a cavern complete with walkways, electricity, and tour groups, watching Dad quietly measure what he called stalactites—dripping rocks hanging from the roof of the cave.

“It’s cold down here.” Eva scooted closer to Dad's work light for warmth. That’s when she discovered that her day had gotten even worse. “Freeze Baby!” she screamed.

“What, honey?” Dad asked.

“Polly Panda! My Freeze Baby! I put her on this rock right where your toolbox is!”

Eva burst into tears. This was a very big deal. Although Freeze Babies were just slime blobs that transformed into cute animals when frozen, they’d become the toy of the year. Eva had received a Polly Panda for her birthday last week, and she hadn’t lost sight of it since.

“Sorry, sweetie, I didn’t see anything,” Dad said.

“We have to find it!” Eva pushed Dad’s toolbox aside so hard that it knocked the work light off the rock. But no Freeze Baby.

Art by David Leonard

“Someone stole it!” Andy declared with the confidence of Sherlock Holmes.

“Why don’t you check around the rock?” Dad suggested.

“I bet it was someone in this tour group.” Andy rubbed his hands together, ready for some action.

“I don’t think we have evidence for that quite yet,” Dad tried to tell Andy.

But Andy had already marched Eva over to the stern-faced tour guide. “Hello, Miss . . .” Andy squinted at the guide’s nametag. “Pillis. We need to see your security camera footage.”

“It’s Phyllis,” the guide replied. “And we don’t have cameras in this area.”

“The perfect crime scene,” Andy said to himself.

“Did you happen to see a Freeze Baby?” Eva asked.

“Yes, people often get cold in here,” Phyllis said. “The cave maintains a constant temperature of 54 degrees, which—Young lady! Put that down!” Phyllis snapped her fingers and pointed over Andy’s shoulder. The kids turned around to see a blonde girl drop a rock. “I’ve already spoken to you about taking things from the cave,” Phyllis said.

“The game’s afoot,” Andy muttered as he walked up to the girl. “My assistant and I have some questions for you.”

“Assistant?” The girl looked confused.

“Sorry about my brother,” Eva said when she caught up. “I’m Eva. What’s your name?”

“Hailey.”

“Hello, Hailey,” Andy said. “Why do you love to steal?”

“Andy!” Eva shrieked.

“I don’t love stealing! I just love rock art. Wanna see?” Before the kids could refuse, Hailey pulled out a phone and started scrolling through pictures. “Look! I painted this one to look like a llama. Here’s a cute little toaster.” She grinned and pointed to a googly-eyed rock painted like a taco. “This is Paco Rocco Taco.”

Andy left his sister with Hailey and her rock collection. He’d already identified his next suspect. “Hi, there,” he said to a bored teenage girl. “I couldn’t help but notice your fanny pack.”

The girl pulled her jacket closed to cover the bag strapped to her waist. “Okay.”

“It’s a Freeze Baby fanny pack, isn’t it? Mind showing me what’s inside?”

“Yeah, I’m not going to do that.”

“Oh, you will!” Andy’s voice rose. “A crime has been committed, and I will stop at nothing—”

“Okay! Stop!” The girl lowered her voice. “These fanny packs are insulated to keep Freeze Babies from melting back to slime. That makes them perfect for stashing snacks. See?” She pulled out an ice cream sandwich.

Art by David Leonard

“No food in the caves!” Phyllis shouted.

“Thanks a lot,” the teen grumbled to Andy.

Andy shook his head, then pulled Eva away from Hailey to regroup by Dad’s worksite. “We only have a few minutes before the tour group leaves. So—” Andy stopped talking when he spotted movement in the shadows. He snatched Dad’s work light and spun toward the intruder.

“Freeze!” The “intruder” did freeze. He also turned out to be Dad.

But before Dad could ask what was going on—CRASH!—Andy dropped the light. “Hot!”

“No horseplay!” Phyllis shouted from across the cavern.

Andy slumped his shoulders. “Sorry, Dad. I wanted to crack the case, not your light.”

Dad sighed and looked at his shattered light. “Eva, you said that you set Polly Panda on this rock, right?”

“Right.”

“Next to the hot light?”

“Right.”

Dad waited for Eva to connect the dots. Finally, she gasped. “The light melted my Freeze Baby!”

Dad nodded. “It probably happened before I set down my toolbox.”

Eva turned over the toolbox. Sure enough, a black and white blob was stuck to the bottom. “It’s Polly!”

Everyone was happy except for Andy. “Why didn’t I think of that?”

“Because you only paid attention to clues that supported your theory,” Dad replied.

“Guess I’m no Sherlock,” Andy sulked.

“Don’t feel bad,” Dad replied. “A lot of scientists make the same mistake. Take these stalactites, for example. Stalactites typically only grow a tiny bit each year as minerals build up from the dripping water. But in the right conditions, they can grow much faster. Scientists who believe in evolution see how slowly stalactites form today and assume that they’ve always grown that slowly, forming over tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of years. But the heavy rain after Noah’s flood would have dissolved lots of minerals and allowed stalactites to grow faster than we can even imagine. That was just a few thousand years ago. But evolutionists are so sure of their assumption that the earth formed over millions of years—”

“that they don’t want to think about other ways the stalactites grew,” Andy finished.

“That’s frustrating,” Eva said.

“It’s a good reminder for us,” Dad said. “We all need humility to accept evidence for what it is—not what we want it to be.”

“Speaking of what we want things to be,” Andy said, “mind showing us where they found the shark fossil?”

What’s the Point?

When we start with what the Bible says about the history of the earth, we know that caves were formed quickly during the end of and after Noah’s flood, and stalactites formed much more quickly in that time than they typically do today. That’s because there was so much water flowing and seeping through the ground into the rocks beneath. Many people don’t want to believe what the Bible says in Genesis because it doesn’t agree with their worldview. As Christians, we should start with God’s Word to understand the scientific evidence. When we start at the right place, we will end up with the right conclusions.