Behind the Fog….
Mark Island Lighthouse, Winter Harbor, Maine
When the summer fog rolls in, the little island lighthouse disappears. If the winds blow just right, the fog breaks briefly and allows enough light through its wispy mist to give a fleeting glimpse of this hidden gem.
We don’t always have clarity in life. We may know something is real, but it lies somewhere beyond our senses or our intellectual capabilities or our ability to adequately articulate. We long for answers about origins and endings and are inquisitive about the meaning and purposes that lie in between. We observe and contemplate the struggles of the living and the dead through history, the arts, science, literature, religions, biographies, geography, photo albums and ancestry searches. We plumb the minds of our elders and intellectuals, whether philosophers, scientists, seers, or theologians. We cobble together our understanding of life and its meaning from snippets of information, from brief revelations, and from partial answers about ourselves, about others, and about our existence. We attempt to connect the fragmented dots of blurred perceptions, distorted thinking, and mere theories and base our world views on limited information. These views either include or exclude God.
Is there a sovereign God? Or multiple gods? Or any god at all? Our judgments about the possibility of God and His nature and activity will depend on our sources of information.
Scripture says there are at least three good places to begin the search. Simple observations and scientific explorations of the natural world are a prime sources of revelation of the magnificence, creativity, purposes, and power of God. (Romans 1:18) Also, the record of Biblical History reveals God involvement and presence with humanity, His immeasurably great love and patience for mankind, His principles for healthy living, His desires for justice, His willingness to forgive lost and impure people, and His action to redeem women and men from evil. That is the great Gospel message of Christ, who is the image of God’s character in human form and is the mediator of God’s immense love, and our redemption, and is the foundation of the believer’s faith.
Jesus said, “Whoever believes in me, believes not in me but in him who sent me/And whoever sees me sees him who sent me/ I have come into the world as light, so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness. (John 12:44-46)
If we want to see, we have to search the mists and await for breaks when the sun shines through. Scripture’s light illuminates the journey. It penetrates the murkiness and gives us glimpses of God’s great desire for us to know Him.
(Colossians 1:15-19)(John 3:16)(Romans 8:38-39)( 1Corinthians 1:30)(Hebrew 12:2) (11 Timothy 3:16)(Hebrews 4:12)
