While riding the rails into downtown Denver this morning, I
found myself staring out the window as the landscape passed by. I do this
occasionally, when I’m not engrossed in a book. And, after a week of rain and
low clouds it was nice to look out and see the foothills again, their surface
green from the copious amounts of water, rolling haphazardly across the western
edge of the city. I took in their unique shape and depth of color that lay in
stark contrast to the manmade buildings and structures in the foreground. The
human designs were symmetrical, redundant and beige. Their conglomerate of
parts (metals, woods, plastics, stone) lacked flow and warmth. I was struck
deeply by the differences in God’s and man’s creations.
In Genesis, we learn that God created all things in six days
and then rested on the seventh. The workload alone is enough to boggle my mind,
but what is truly divine about this story, is that everything was created from
nothing. God simply spoke it into existence. There were no loose atoms floating
around just waiting to bump into each other, only God, and His magnificent
ideas of what would make a perfect creation. Conversely, man has been bound by
the confines of knowledge and materials found on Earth. We have learned to,
with relative success, manipulate the products provided to us to build
beneficial items. Trees are cut down, planed and sanded, rocks and sand are
mixed with water to form concrete, ores are refined, melted and formed into
beams. All of these, and many others, are then used to make the images
contrived in the minds of men.
As a species, we have built and designed fabulous things
such as the pyramids, Great Wall of China, Boeing’s 777, Sputnik, SCUBA gear,
Oreos (this list could go on forever) but in the end all we have really done is
rearrange the parts that God gave us. Even things like paintings, poems and
music are limited by our ability to make paints and pigments, manipulate language
and work within the mathematical confines of music theory. We have no power to
truly create. We can no more speak an iron atom into existence than we can add
another pitch to the musical scale. This reminded me of a joke where a
scientist challenges God to a creation contest. He says that man has advanced
so far the he can make a human from dirt and can do it faster. God accepts the
challenge and as they prepare for the duel, the scientist picks up a handful of
soil. God responds by saying “nope, you get your own dirt.”
All this to say, I am constantly awed by God’s power,
especially as I see it in nature. He provided us with a wonderful environment
to live in and enjoy. But, not only that, He gives us creative minds and the
supplies to make things for both our pleasure and to give Him glory. Take some
time to look past the city and out at the original creation, the natural world
that was designed by Him with us in mind. I think that as we retrain our eyes
to see beyond our own works we will be blown away by the true majesty and
beauty that can only be the result of the Master’s hand.
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