Thursday, June 4, 2009

June 5, 2009

I was hiking in the Sierra Nevadas with my brother and his two boys. We trekked up a mile or so to a spot called "Eagle's Rest". Ahead of us was a mirror-like lake that reflected a snow capped peak that towered above it. There was barely a ripple on the surface except for an occasional fish that bubbled to the top to feast on a water bug. The sun was shining in a cloudless azure sky and a cool breeze lightly wafted past my face. Climbing up on a rock to get a better view, I caught the panorama that stretched thousands of feet below me as I looked down on Lake Tahoe. So overcome was I by this sensory overload that I shouted, "Okay, God! That's enough! Now you're just showing off!" And, indeed, He was.
There was no possibility that I could have reconciled such grandeur happening by random events. Everywhere I looked I saw ample evidence of an intelligent and imaginative designer who was sharing a glance of what awaits us on the backside of this canvas where His masterpiece was painted. While I was well capable of enjoying the breath-taking beauty, I could have never conceived such a scene, let alone ever create it.
Every Design Has A Designer
The Psalmist may have had a similar moment when he penned these this praise, "Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever You formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting You are God." Psalm 90:2
Forget about the scenic beauty of nature, consider its precision. We mark time by the predicable positions of the planets and predictable times. Seasons and tides and eclipses are predicted to exact minutes. NASA can launch a space craft from Florida and rondeveau with the space station at a precalulated place and time. How is that possible? Is it an amazing cosmic coincidence or is it more?
How could it be anything but the intelligent orchestration of an omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent God? Anything else defies logic. Anything less demeans common sense.
Why would you even try to manufacture an alternative explanation? Why try to argue to the contrary in the face of such undeniable evidence - unless you wanted to promote another agenda. Maybe if you were bent on controlling your own life and rebelling against God's authority, then you might want to explain God away. Or perhaps if you were determined not to be held accountable to a Holy God for your sinful self-willed living, then maybe you would search for another origin for nature.
Here's where I come down on this point. If God can craft the kind of beauty I beheld that day in the few days of Creation, I can't wait to see what He has done in Heaven over the past 2,000 years! And if God has orchestrated all these vast and interdependent cosmic moments with predicatable precision, I want to know that same Hand is on the controls keeping everything running in concert. Pardon me if I don't want to leave those to movements to chance.
The more we discover about this amazing universe and the more understand its complexity and coordination, the more impressed I am with my God, my Father and Creator. And the more thankful I am that He is in control.
How about you? When was the last time you worshipped at a sunset? Have you praised Him for the pastels of Spring or the blazing colors of Fall? Have you marveled over the inticrate perfection of a newborn baby? Why not bow before Him now?