On a field trip with my daughter, we wander North America’s
largest urban park, Fish Creek Provincial Park, in small groups looking for
insects and wildlife. Any animal with any sense, vacated the area when they
heard a bus of screaming grade two children turn in to the park boundaries.
Thank heavens for the insects. It’s still cold so you have to dig for them.
Oh, except for the large mound, the ant hill, swarming with
ants of all sizes. They are black and red in colour. One can only guess for
every ant on the surface there are more within the mound, like an iceberg.
Oh the excitement, the screams the unwillingness to handle
the ants and the kids were excited too. Ahem.
The day was nice and I’m sure I’ll be able to suppress the
memories in time.
Except the ant hill. That image is stuck in my mind.
I like to listen to various viewpoints, atheist, other
religious positions and one of the most common is that God, if he is real, is a
force. A creator type of being who started things spinning and then sits back
and lets it role. He looks down on his creation like I looked down on the ant
hill. God sits at a distance, detached.
I can understand why people believe this, but I personally
don’t agree.
It boils down to our world view. And mine, to be blunt is
shaped very much by the Bible. It is the tool I use to understand my God
better.
I don’t feel like an ant. I don’t feel like God is a force,
out there detached. I don’t feel an absence in the heavens.
Why?
Because I believe what I read, “Are not two sparrows sold
for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of
your Father. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don’t be
afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.
Did you catch that? He knows how many hairs are on our
heads. Alright, not a huge challenge when you consider my husband (just
kidding), but my head? He knows how many hairs are on this super thick Bailey
scalp!! Wow!! He knows the details of his creation to that degree. He knows my
name, my thoughts. Even the best entomologist would not be able to name the
thousands of ants in an ant hill. He wouldn’t be able to know each ant in that
detail. But my God does.
I have seen his hand in my life in a way that shows me his
love and concern. He doesn’t prevent the bad from coming, but he guides us and
helps us grow through it all.
And even the best entomologist wouldn’t understand his
creation enough to see the need for salvation. Even the luckiest ant has never
experienced (nor has need as part of God’s natural world) a saviour.
To me God is not a force. Because, “For God so loved the
world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not
perish but have eternal life.”
No other world view offers that. Not one.
