Where is God – Part II
Let’s start with the basics:,
Let’s set the foundation that, in my belief system, God created the heavens and the earth. All that you see and all that you are are his creations. Why and how long it took to put it all together: that is another topic for another day.
Ultimately I believe that God is a constant; whatever He (and yes, I will use the traditional “He” in this case, just to keep it simple…) He has always been and always will be. Man on the other hand is in an ever continuing cycle of change; only God and some of his simpler creations are consistent and unchanging as far as we are capable of seeing with our limited scope of vision.
In my world, seeing God as a constant is a given. But seeing his simpler creations as consistent: How can this be?
Consider grass for example: Every time we mow it, it comes back; if you burn it, it will still grow back. All winter it is covered in cold and snow and yet in the spring, it comes back. And, it never comes back orange or pinstriped; it is always only green.
Grass is a fairly simple creation.
Consider trees and bushes and butterflies and fish and all of nature; they are consistent and follow the same basic format year after year. Never does a tree try to be a fish or a flower turn and grow upside-down. They are what they are and they are pretty good at being what they are and that’s about it. Yes it’s true that over time Mother Nature has “evolved” as specific parts of her environment have demanded either change or death. Overall however, in the scope of our lifetimes, it’s all fairly constant.
Nature as a collection is a bit more complex; yet still it is fairly basic and simple in its life model and its ability to co-exist with other members of Mother Nature’s family.
Mankind as a species however is a whole new level of complex.
We are one of the only creations I am aware of that feels the need to constantly change our environment.
Think about it: if you get rid of everything that man has made, all you have left is all of what God has made.
And, all the rest of God’s creations seem to be alright with that. The Buffalo does not need to build a shelter to exist. The Fox does not need a market to get its meals for the week. The Wombat does not need a Starbucks to get the day off to a good start. Nature, in its natural state, is all that it needs. Even those animals that build nests or burrow into the ground are using elements entirely of nature and from nature; when they are done with it, by the next annual cycle, it will usually go back to nature entirely.
Man however needs more. We like nature, but nature is for the animals and the trees and the flowers and the bugs. Condo’s, city lofts and suburban split-level dwellings are more along the lines of what man considers his natural environment. If you took the average human and put him in the middle of a forest and said: “Eat…” he would probably starve.
So, if God created the heavens and the earth and all the things in nature outside the realm of mankind’s man-made habitats and… if he also created us, then why are we so different from the rest of his creations?
Why do we want more? Why do we dream and wonder of a higher power and of an existence beyond what we can see? Why are we so complicated?
It is written in the Good Book somewhere that God created man in his own image. Weather this is true or is just man’s way of trying to elevate himself to a higher level of importance is not really known by any factual knowledge. However, if we assume for now that this is true then it would be safe to also assume that God is just as complex and complicated as we are. He is just as driven to succeed and excel, just as passionate about life and right and wrong and good and bad, just as tempted by all the forces that push and pull a being around. He is also a dreamer, and a believer in more and better and bigger, He is a feeler of love and anger and hatred and frustration, He is capable of loving what is, and dreaming of what is not.
He is capable of all these things and more; more because, whereas we are children to him, he is a great father to us. He has mastered all that we now know and understand, and, has an intimate understanding of all those seemingly magical God things that we can only speculate about. To Him, making an entire world is as easy as making an omelet or boiling water is to us.
To think of God as being capable of all the same things that we think of as “human frailties” can too easily make God seem like less of a God. To me however, this just makes him even more God like than before; more God like because whereas we struggle with these things He has mastered them.
To some, taking this all in and believing it all takes a greater leap of faith than most people can muster. Sometimes even I fall into this category.
However, we have the bible and other great books of God and from this it is our faith that says it’s all true; it is with this that we believe that God exists and that there is a purpose in all this. Furthermore, from this single “F” word alone (Faith), we also surmise that there is more; that there is a life beyond this fleshy existence to look forward to.
Faith is important; hard, but important. And if we take this “made in the image of God” thing a step further, we must therefore surmise that as we must have faith in God , God also must have faith in us.
If you believe in a God, and believe that He created all of this and all of us, then it is my opinion that one should also believe that there is a purpose in it all; that this was not all just some random interaction between the cosmos and the ever famous “Primordial Goo” that just happened to develop a thinking feeling breathing being that would later be called man. And furthermore, this “Man” just happened to begin life on a planet that would ultimately prove to be the perfect ecosystem; a place that has everything needed to support life. Additionally, this life, this planet is not just the perfect place; it not only has everything needed for the simple lives of an early version of man, but is able to be developed and changed as that species called man changes and demands more.
Granted, some would say at this point that Man has changed this earth so much that it can’t keep up; that pollution and overpopulation and over use of the earth’s resources has pushed the planet to the brink of destruction. Although this may be true it would not be so because of anything the creator did or didn’t do. It would more likely be because of the choices of his creation –Man!
Any way you look at it, this planet, the creations on it, both living and inanimate, and yes even Man is altogether a pretty impressive collection of things. And it seems more likely that some higher power put them all together here just like they are for some profound purpose. Sometimes, that purpose can be a bit hard to see, and, on a bad day it can all seem a bit worthless and annoying. However, there has to be more than what we see that brought it all together and keeps it all working.
Mankind, as an evolved species, is a pretty impressive inventor and creator. Just look at all that we have done: We have houses with heat and running water; we have vast cities complete with all the resources needed for modern urban survival; we have medicine and medical knowledge that is vast and capable of fixing just about any human malady that comes along; we have cars and trucks and motorcycles and trains and traffic and congestion and overpopulation and social and financial inequality and stressful environments, and impressive weapons of war boasting more advanced and complex ways of destroying each other, and…
Yes. It is true that mankind as a species is an impressive inventor and creator. The problem with our creations is their ability to exist without destroying or eliminating something or someone else in the process. The concept of creating and coexisting; this I believe is, for the most part, beyond man’s abilities.
But an entire world, living and dying, growing and evolving, co-existing in perfect harmony and balance with no need of any kind of intervention except for God and the interactions inherent in the creations themselves… This type of creation takes more –more than what man can conjure up.
And as for purpose: Mankind has been pondering the purpose of life for as long as man has existed. Other than opinions and hopes, we have had very little success. However, it is my opinion that in this world, in the lives of its inhabitants, purpose already exists; we have only to find it. That this “purpose” already exists, beyond man’s ability to find and embrace it again suggests a higher power –a greater being than us.
As humans, or God’s children, we really have very little to hold onto. All we really have to help us keep this higher power and his promise of eternal paradise in the realm of reality… is again Faith –and on a bad day, that can seem like very little indeed. However, as previously noted faith is important.
When I was a child I thought as a child. I was invincible and unstoppable. Life was long, filled with lots of years; years upon years that seemed never-ending from the perspective of a 12 year old. God was something they talked about on Sunday and Christmas and when somebody died. God was important, but not too much in the day to day ramblings of a preteen boy with an imagination as big as all outdoors.
But when that child becomes a man and the end of his mortal existence seems closer than ever before, God, life, and the promises of what is behind that veil called death also becomes more important than ever before. From the vantage point of 54 years old, what comes after and how best to assure ones place in this “after” becomes an important question to answer.
