The Knoxville Zoo is a place to take the kids, family, large groups. Etc. Everyone can see all kinds of animals, reptiles, amphibians, birds and more! …. A great way to bring in the creation story and how God created all of them. One thing you will need to use caution when reading the about signs by each exhibit. Like the one by the alligator one, claiming the earth is over 340 million years old, but the Bible tells us otherwise. According to Creation.com from Biblical reasoning they say the Earth is 6,000 years old.1 Creation.com is a great place to look to get your Biblical Creation stories.
I remember going to the zoo as a kid. They still have the old entrance then and you would walk up the hill in the beginning you would see the Bears. But today they have a totally different entrance and the pathways there are a lot different than when I was a kid. I’ve got to go a few times since I have been an adult. Most of those times are on their local days or canned food days. One thing I noticed on those days in the past, I don’t really see all that many animals out and about.
I noticed the kids that I observed were enjoying themselves. We all know that little kids love to see animals.
I noticed they had a merry-go-round there. They even have a petting zoo. There’s even a splashed area where you can get wet. So bring a towel and maybe your bathing suit or something to get wet in. They even have misting sprays at The Knoxville Zoo too so you can cool off if it’s a hot day. They also have Camel rides. Most of these things cost extra to participate in.
The Safari Grill was good that’s where we ate. We got bacon cheeseburgers I had gift certificates from when I worked at at ADT. The bacon cheeseburger was good. The tater fries they server were good too. The combo gives you a keepsake cup. They also have a few other venders for food throughout. They even have Dippin Dots, the dotted ice cream.
You can incorporate many different creation or other Bible stories. When you’re at the reptile area you talk about the snakes. You can say how God put him to crawl on his belly for deceiving Eve. You can talk about the plagues in Egypt in the Frog area. Daniel and the Lions Den in the Lions area. You may even talk about the Noah and the Ark. You can also talk about how Adam got to name all the animals. Plus many more. You can also share how Jesus rode in on a donkey on Palm Sunday. Even though the zoo seems to have a lot of secular things inside, we can still make it into a Biblical learning experience for our children or our group.
My 16 year old daughter and I walked about 2 miles according to my pedometer. We spent maybe about 3 hours there but I’m sure if you truly stop and took your time you can spend the day there. But of course my daughter and I have been there before. Plus, we stopped an ate there too.
One final thing, be prepared to pay $5 to cover parking per vehicle.
I contacted The Knoxville Zoo about doing a Christian review. Their response was they prefer reviews to be secular. I ended up using passes I got from a prior employer that expired in June. I blog for God so I will not make a secular post about this. I will give my honest Christian review of this place along with a suggested topic to teach. This goes for any establishment that I may review. If there are other zoos and aquariums that want to keep it secular, then that is another place that we need to pray for because that means of trying to please the world and not God the Creator. And if God didn’t create the animals then they wouldn’t be having a facility.
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What is your experiences with The Knoxville Zoo? Any other ideas of a Bible topic to share while you are at the zoo? Comments are welcome!
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