My Heart Is Awake

For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.  For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. – Romans 1:19-20

That God can be seen in everything does not diminish the more perfect revelation in Christ.  An impersonal and uncaring God could have created some kind of universe.  Some argue that all the pain, suffering, death and waste present in life are evidence against a personal and loving God.  We know, though, that the artist is not the picture, and that the sculpture may be evidence of the sculptor’s vision and genius but it is not the sculptor himself. 

In order to bring the cosmos into existence, God had to make something that was not Him.  His word brought light out of darkness, but He also had to create darkness – that absence or space that allows for manifestation.  I cannot attribute the emergence of evil to God, but I can vaguely grasp the idea that, for good to be seen, there had to be a kind of freedom that would allow the possibility of the not-good. 

Our failure as Adam’s race is that we so often choose the not-good over the good and prefer the shadows to the light.  Life exists to rule over matter and spirit over life with love over all.  We can understand something of the power and magnificence of the Creator from the mountains and the seas, from the storm, the solitude of the desert, the vastness and frightening beauty of space.  We can understand something of the Divine life from the seed that grows and the circle of animal existence.  We can catch a glimpse of the mind of God in every mind endowed with reason. 

Yet, in the end, it is only in Christ that we may understand, as much as is humanly possible, the love of God.  The Incarnation shows us not only that God is but that He is our Father who watches, responds, and cares.  The heart of the Gospel, the death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus shows us that God’s love is greater than death and conquers the grave.  If we will turn to Him, His love will transcend and transform all of our sin, our suffering, our failures, our fears, taking it all into the abyss and bring us out as new creations filled with the light and life of Christ.