El McMeen looks at God in creation

El McMeen

I've always been intrigued by the idea that the best way to protect yourself against a thief is to hide things in plain view. Another way to put it is that we routinely ignore the obvious. Consider this: what is the most valuable thing in your house or apartment? Think a minute, before reading on. I wonder how many of us listed "air!" Talk about the important and obvious, and how we can lose sight or appreciation of it.

During what has been a glorious summer here in New Jersey, USA, I've been reflecting on this subject in the context of Psalm 19, Verse 1:

'The heavens declare the glory of God;
the skies proclaim the work of his hands.'

Let's consider a few things: if our world simply evolved or developed in some kind of random manner, why is it that the sky around our earth is blue, and that there is very little blue on the face of the earth? When we see a bluebird or even a noisy blue jay, we are delighted. And we all know that a "blue spruce" isn't REALLY blue...and that the oceans are blue only because they reflect the sky.

Or (without getting too graphic) consider the different colors of the various secretions from the human body. What has the most dramatic color? Blood. It's red. When we see it, alarm bells go off.

Now, a skeptic might say "hey, the only reason we consider the color of blood to be dramatic is that it's associated with blood, which is really, really important; there's nothing inherently dramatic about the color red." That might sound reasonable, except for this: consider how relatively rare the color red is on the face of the earth - such that when we see a cardinal, or the red of maple leaves turned in the Fall, we are delighted.

And, by the way, what exactly is the biological necessity that the leaves of certain trees turn dramatic colors in the Fall? Or that snow be white, rather than transparent or translucent?

Hmm, it sounds as if a major-league artist has been at work here, rather than some cosmic cannon shooting a bunch of rocks and protoplasm throughout the universe in one massive explosion of simultaneously created matter.

And isn't it interesting that the best Godless theory that scientists can come up with is the exact expression a three-year-old, with arms open wide, might use in describing a fireworks display: "hey, dad, there was this BIG bang!" That's just scary.

Or how about the existence of the butterfly? What in Heaven's name is the reason for a butterfly, except to delight humans and remind them of the glorious resurrection of our Savior? A skeptic might say, "well, the butterfly is millions of years old, and Jesus was resurrected (if at all, he would say) only 2000 years ago."

Well, I'd try to be patient in explaining that there is such a thing as the prophetic, and that the Bible has stunning examples, if the skeptic would open it and take a look. I'd also say that the millions-of-years part of it is simply a Godless concept created to support the hypothesis of a fellow who lived 150 years ago named Charles Darwin, who-contrary to the notion in certain circles-was actually NOT present at The Creation. "No," the skeptic says, "we have carbon and other ways of dating things!" "Oh, are they infallible?" "Well, no." "Do they take account of a flood?" "There was no such flood," the skeptic would assert.

Oh, but the guy who was there and brought it about said there was, and Jesus Himself referred to it.

And the beat goes on...