FROM THE PASTOR
We are told in Romans that the people who are unable to see God, can’t see him because they won’t see him. Romans 1:18 says that they “suppress the truth in unrighteousness”. The problem is not that God can’t be seen, it is that they won’t see him. We know that God is not visible to the human eye. You can’t get on a space ship and go look at God as the Russians delighted in pointing out years ago. Yet God clearly reveals himself to everyone who is willing to see.
A primary way he has done this is in creation. I like to say that God left his fingerprints all over his work. We can’t see God directly, but we can see him indirectly through his creation. There is overwhelming physical evidence for anyone who is willing to see. A family trip through California provided many opportunities to review this lesson.
We spent the better part of a day at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. It is an amazing collection of the wonders under the water. Monterey Bay offers an excellent opportunity for underwater research since a deep canyon comes almost to the shore. The water drops to two miles deep within an easy boat ride from the pier. Deep water exploration is conducted in the bay and presented live on screens in the aquarium. We saw clams that live happily in total darkness on a dilute form of battery acid. My favorite deep water creature was the vampire squid. It is blood red until it turns itself inside out revealing its black underside.
The tanks of the aquarium are filled with an amazing diversity of water life. Little jelly fish looked like they were tangled in strings of Christmas lights. Large ones floated in all colors and sizes. We stood eye to eye with schools of tuna and packs of sharks. We got to touch fascinating and disgusting creatures in the hands-on area. Each creature is uniquely designed to fit a special environment with specific needs. It is blasphemous to give Mother Nature credit for such creative wonders.
We also drove along the sea and in the mountains. I was struck with the ease of distinguishing design from chance. The stone wall around the campground at the foot of El Capitan was made from the same rock piled in a jumbled heap behind it; but no one would confuse the obvious design of the wall with the debris it contained. Each path and road through the forest stood out as the obvious product of will and effort. What is true in the small detail is also obvious in the large picture. The marks of design are everywhere. The enemies of God who credit chance for the universe have to seriously blur the picture.
We drove through hundreds of miles of farmland. California fields are big. The fields are laid out in countless rows. We passed rows of trees, rows of grapevines, rows of corn and rows of cabbage. Each one had a distinct look and design, yet they were all similar in structure. No thinking person would say that the common appearance of the rows demonstrates an evolutionary connection between the plants. We easily recognize that the rows are the design of the farmer. He makes them because farming works best in rows. The similarity between the fields comes from design not chance. So why did the marine biologists tell us that similarity among the fish had to come from the evolutionary connections among them? I saw a repeated design used by the maker of the universe. Certain things just work better than others so they are used over and over again.
I don’t understand how anyone can stand at the foot of a giant Sequoia or peer through a microscope at a perfectly designed mini-monster and deny the existence of God. His fingerprints are everywhere. They are even within us. God has left his imprint on our nature and in our thought processes. We should see him when we turn in and when we turn out.
It is clear to me that we have to close our eyes not to see God. Let’s keep our eyes open. Don’t be intimidated by those who have their eyes shut and are trying to get you to shut yours too. Keep looking. The evidence for God is everywhere.