Tez is our guest this Friday.
Before you read his article listen to YouTube: ‘So will I 100 billion x’
Where is God in all this??
As many of you know Ruth and I often find ourselves walking the coast path of Cornwall, I often look at some of the stunning views and find myself thinking that that view did not just happen by accident, but, God created it so that we could look at it and can see the beauty of his creation. If someone asked me about my belief in God at those times it would seem easy to tell them of a belief in wonderful creator, as when you look at a view, such as a seascape, you have the evidence literally in front of your eyes, how can anyone make an argument for it not being created by God?
However, during this pandemic I often ask myself the question, if friends and family who have not found God’s love, were to ask me ‘where is God in all this?’ How would I respond, we all like to find someone to blame when things go wrong, is God to blame in any way?
I have come up with my response, however, there are probably many ways to respond, and I would be interested in hearing other ways to respond to the question ‘where is God in all this?’
Right at the start of the Bible, Genesis 1:26 God said, ’Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals and over all the creatures that move along the ground’.
He went on to create Adam and Eve and explained to them that all on earth was for them to have and to manage.
How have we done so far?
We have too much plastic in the seas creating all sorts of problems not only for sea life but for sea birds. We are reducing rain forests to fulfil man’s needs or wants, which is not only devastating the habitats of many of the wild animals but also reducing the planets ability to produce clean air.
Are we also the cause of global warming? Well that’s another debate.
Genesis 2:16-17 And the Lord God commanded the man, ‘You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.’
In the very next chapter of Genesis, chapter 3 that command was broken.
We are not good at looking after what God has given us and we are not good at doing as God asks us.
Nature is very finely balanced and mankind has proven we are not good at balancing it. Many nature programs make that evidence clear to see.
We need to be looking to God for guidance on how to manage our resources, we need to listen to Gods answers and implement his ideas not just for a while, until we think we know better, as Adam and Eve did, but for as long as God tells us to, which means we need to continue to ask God for guidance, to listen to it, and continue to act upon it.
If we still feel the need to know how things go so wrong, if we still need someone to blame, perhaps we need not to look to God, but look to a mirror.
Thanks to Tez for his thoughts. Listen to YouTube ‘Rend Collective Rescuer lyrics’
I look forward to writing to you on Sunday – Stephen