Manna and Coffee

For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse. – Romans 1:20

Have you ever looked all over the house to find something that was already in your pocket or hand? This has happened to me a few times over the years when I’m distracted, hurried and/or stressed. Or have you ever talked to someone over the phone multiple times and formed an opinion in your mind of what they must look like, and then been surprised to find out that they don’t look anything at all like you expected them to look like when you actually meet them in person?

Romans 1:20 is kind of like those experiences in my mind. How many people are running around the planet distracted, hurried, and/or stressed looking for purpose, meaning and answers that have been right in front of them the whole time? How many people are oblivious to the evidence of God all around them because they are searching for a God of expectation rather than acknowledging and accepting the one true God who is?

Romans 1:20 tells us that if we really want to understand our Creator we just need to study the creation. If you want to know more about God you need to look below the beauty of leaves to understand how plants convert energy from the sun into food through photosynthesis. If you really want to understand our Creator you have to look beyond the steak that you are enjoying and understand how proteins are formed and how they function and about the principle of chirality. If you really want to understand our Creator you have to understand that deoxyribonucleic acid, or DNA, is made up of billions of adenine (A), guanine (G), cytosine (C), and thymine (T) chemical bases that encode and transmit instructions for life.

There are some who say that science and religion should not be mixed because they are not compatible. I strongly disagree. To me, that is like trying to say that you should never mix artists with their art or musicians with their music. It is true that you can enjoy and appreciate art or music without knowing anything at all about its composer. But once you learn about its creator you gain a brand new appreciation for the artistic creation.

It’s not a coincidence that we love art and music. We love art and music because the artist’s heart can touch our hearts through their creative expression. We create because we were created in the image of our Creator. I guess that you could say that creativity and curiousity is in our physical and spiritual DNA. Just like birds are born with the ability to travel south during winter, all people are born with a natural desire to create and know and understand our Creator. Thankfully God left a bread trail in the Creation itself and He revealed His thoughts in the Bible.

Unfortunately we are also born into a fallen world. A world full of sinful, broken people just like us. Sin is like the grime that covers the windshields of our cars that keeps us from seeing clearly. If it is not dealt with, clouded vision can cause us to travel through life missing the beauty all around us and will eventually lead to pain and physical and spiritual death. The Good news is that God loves us. He loves us so much that He was willing to send His Son to die for us and make a path back to Himself. He loves us so much that He gave us free will. It’s up to us if we want to drive through life in a fog, or travel through life with clear vision; with purpose with peace, love, joy and hope, knowing our Creator.

Thank you Lord for leaving your calling card in the universe that you created and for giving us the ability to create and understand so that we can appreciate all that you have done for us. Thank you for forgiving ours sins through the precious blood of Christ and for inviting us to spend eternity with you.