David Willis shares some wonderful thoughts on a very foundational notion in the Christian faith- that God is real, and at work in our lives every day.
(Psalm 19:1-4 NLT)
1 The heavens proclaim the glory of God. The skies display his craftsmanship. 2 Day after day they continue to speak; night after night they make him known. 3 They speak without a sound or word; their voice is never heard. 4 Yet their message has gone throughout the earth, and their words to all the world.
Have you ever noticed how there’s not much reality in “reality” TV shows? Most seem to circle around a group of people bent on winning a prize by either eating various and sundry inedible animal parts, performing silly or somewhat dangerous stunts, or subjecting themselves to humiliation at the hands of “experts” in a particular field.
There are exceptions, of course. Reality shows like COPS, or Trauma: Life in the ER certainly deal with very real situations. But even these shows tend to focus solely on exciting situations, and leave out the typical, or mundane tasks that comprise a great deal of most days in the ER, or in the squad car. I guess showing nurses and doctors charting until their hands cramp, or police officers filling out traffic tickets doesn’t generate TV ratings.
While it’s easy to write off these shows as entertainment when we see their silly plots, or because we see only those events that cause our adrenaline to pump, sometimes we have difficulty discerning what is real because of what we can’t see. We tend to subject our concept of what is real to a battery of tests, the chief of which are, “Can I see it?” and, “Can I touch it?” Pretty much, if something escapes our five senses, we tend to write it off as fake, or inconsequential.
My thoughts on reality were given genesis as our Vacation Bible School kicked off Sunday evening with their first lesson called, “God is Real”. I thought about how foreign it is for us, in today’s technologically advanced world, to accept as real, to obey, to even talk with and pray to our God Whom we can’t see. I was so grateful that our VBS kicked off with the most basic lesson on probably the most difficult concept of Christianity…God is real even though we can’t see Him. In considering this, I was reminded of a quote from Evangelist, Billy Graham as he talked about the reality of God. Graham said, “Can you see God? You haven’t seen him? I’ve never seen the wind. I see the effects of the wind, but I’ve never seen the wind. There’s a mystery to it.”
When you feel distant from God, when tough times come your way, or when you simply need to remember that God is real, I pray that you would recall those profound words from Rev. Graham, and those poetic lines from Psalm 19 listed above.
Step outside your front door, feel the wind (or rain) on your face, consider the green grass, or the intricacies of the humming bird buzzing around your neighbors feeder. Ponder the miracle of birth, trace the anatomy of the human eye and its myriad functions, and be comforted by the fact that even though God is invisible, His Creation is testimony to His reality.
In Christ,
David