Why The Creation Matters: Day 3

 The heavens declare the glory of God, the skies proclaim the work of His hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night, they display knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard…                                

Psalm 19:1-3

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 men are without excuse. For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened…          Romans 1:20, 21                              

When the psalmist looked up at the starry sky, his primary response wasn’t emotional or even devotional. He tells us that he received real information (knowledge) about the real Creator that made it. It is the same message we receive when we look up at the same sky: Something exists that is greater, more powerful, more beautiful and more lasting than we are. The appropriate response to such knowledge is reverence, humility and a compelling desire to know that Creator.

When the men described in Romans 1 look up, they see the same sky, communicating the same knowledge. And, according to Paul, they “get the message.” But the position of God in their lives has been filled—by themselves.

We have a puppy who loves to chase his tail. When he is involved in this activity, his world consists of a circle about two feet in diameter. The folks in Romans 1, like our puppy, have a goal and a willingness to expend lots of energy to reach that goal. But in their badly shrunken worldview everything revolves around the tight little orbit of their thoughts, feelings and ideas. This is a good working definition of futility.

A hundred year’s ago, “scientific” was new and modern and the scientific mind was influenced at every level by evolution. (Remember time + chance = everything there is. No God need apply.) It seemed to answer all the questions people were asking. A hundred years later, our knowledge of the world over us, around us and inside us has exploded. We have whole fields of science based on questions the early scientists never even knew to ask.

The self-evident truth is that no creation can be greater than the one who created it and a random, blind “creator” cannot produce an intelligent, complex and precise creation.

Nancy Shirah