Sometimes the tiniest of things get my attention. I was reading an article on noses this week. And I learned something amazing to me. In a single breath, more molecules will pass through my nostrils than all the grains of sand on all the world's beaches--trillions and trillions of them. Those tiny little bits come from a few feet or several yards away from me and travel at me at about 5 miles an hour. But once they enter my nose, then they are carried on mucus that moves them through my throat and eventually out of my body at the rate of 60 feet a day! I have to confess that I don't think about all that when I breathe but knowing it makes me realize how intricate God made me and how wonderful that He provides a way that normally keeps me healthy and well. And I wonder how God can see those tiny little trillions of molecules that are in each breath I take. I can't even seem to type these notes without my glasses and even they aren't serving me very well! I need new ones. Yet God sees everything--even what I wish He hadn't seen!
It was interesting to me to learn it has been discovered that a bacteria alone on a Petri dish doesn't glow but it sends out chemical signals that say "Hey, I'm here." And then listens for other bacteria to send the same signal. Somehow they know when enough of them are doing this! And suddenly they light up and do all sorts of other things together in concert. It seems that they have a kind of universal language and they begin to all glow blue together. They all have a common chemical that helps them "talk" to one another! If it is necessary for tiny little bacteria to communicate, how much more important it is for us who are created in God's image to communicate with others--especially communicate His love and care and His salvation plan for us.
While I am not exactly afraid of spiders, they aren't my best friends either. I especially don't want them to crawl on me! It was a bit if a shock when I learned that the spider that often crawls on me outdoors, and that I learned to call Daddy-long-legs is not a true spider at all since they don't have fangs or venom unlike a look-alike who is the cellar spider, a true spider. There is a spider that comes out this time of year that I sort of admire--as long as I see it before I get too close and run into it. This past couple of weeks a big yellow and black garden spider made its home high on the outside wall of our kitchen. I'm not sure that it was a wise location if it wanted bugs as there is no light up there to draw them close. Another made a web in our cucumber patch. We are okay with that as long as we remember to see where it is as it changes day to day and then stay out of the web that is so cleverly created. These spiders are pretty in a spider kind of way and mind their own business and have a favorite letter in the alphabet--they weave many letter z's into every web. There are more than 45,000 species of spiders in the world. I wonder why God thought we needed so many? A question to get the answer to when Jesus and I can sit down for a good long visit in heaven. I have many things to ask Him about!
I like to collect pictures of animals doing their animal things. I love to find pictures that show me things that I might never see myself. This week I saw a picture of several bats dining on watermelon! I am pretty sure that my husband would think that he would appreciate the melon more than they. Never the less, they looked like it was very tasty! We normally think that we want them to eat lots of mosquitoes but God lets us vary our diets! We don't have to only eat green beans every day so why can't bats have watermelon, too.
We have several apple trees in our yard. Recently we cut down 2 of them but there are 4 left. One was cut down because it was so old and no longer a productive tree and it has been replaced. Note to self, try to be productive so I will always be needed. Another was cut down because while it was productive, what it produced was not good fruit. No one wanted to deal with them and it was time for it to go to make room for something better. It is well known that to have good apples normally, the trees need to be tended, watered, pruned, and sprayed. All this in order to produce good fruit. Sadly, only one of our trees was sprayed for bugs this year. I used many of the apples for applesauce and apple crisp but it was troublesome as I had to do a lot of cutting and trimming to get only the good parts. The spray had minimal effectiveness. This week I have used apples from another tree--a tree that has had no care at all. The interesting thing is that it has not been tended to--not watered, not pruned, not sprayed, nothing! The apples from it that we have used are quite good though. Some have no blemishes at all. How can this have happened? They are so good for eating. All without care. God is our orchardist. He has to give some of us a lot of care and tending to and we keep Him busy! There are others who seem live to be useful to Him and do not stray from His orchard and remain productive no matter what comes their way.
One of our kitties is named Marco. When you have cats, often they will have fleas and will need help to get rid of them. Our other cat is Miss Kitty and she is easy for us to apply the flea control. But Marco is much more difficult. He seems to have more muscles than both of us together and he has at least 8 feet it seems. We have a hard time trying to do something that he does not want done to him and applying flea control is not what he wants. So we have procrastinated on getting it done. One day we discovered that he was spending a lot of time curled up sleeping on top of a large growing catnip plant. When he did that several days in a row, I did a bit of goggling, again. Sure enough! Catnip is a natural flea control. God has placed knowledge in our kitties’ brains that is amazing. Who knew that he could solve his own problem?
Marco is supposed to come home at night but he is not always as obedient as we would prefer. He tries our patience about coming home on time. One night he was out and about too long to suit us and we suddenly began to get a strong smell of skunk through our open windows. You can imagine our fears! Would we even want him to come home? Eventually he did and he did not smell bad! That was a relief. We would have still wanted him but reluctant to have him near us. Sometimes we smell bad to God. While He loves us, our bad smell does not make Him reject us. He still wants us to come near and receive a cleansing.
Skunks are both good and bad. They eat grubs and other troublesome critters but they also smell !!!! And sometimes they eat things that we don't want them to eat. We fear that a skunk was the cause of the demise of one of the chickens this week! A naughty skunk! Just like the skunks, people are good and bad. We all know people or have heard about people who seem to be only bad with no good found in them. Daily I struggle to not have anything bad found in me. I want only the good to be found. I want the record at judgment time to say that the bad has been forgiven and no record of the bad can be found.
Nature is one of the ways in which God has revealed Himself to me and you. What exactly does nature, the universe around us, tell me about God? We can find evidence of God's existence from looking at the world in which we live.
God's Existence And Precision Are Evident In Nature.The Bible says that the universe is a testimony to God's existence and precision. David had this to say: "The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows his handiwork. Day unto day utters speech, and night unto night reveals knowledge. There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard". (Psalm 19:1-3). What does the Bible say about nature? "Let the heavens rejoice, let the earth be glad; let the sea resound, and all that is in it. Let the fields be jubilant, and everything in them; let all the trees of the forest sing for joy." - Psalm 96:11-12, NIV. David knew that God's rule and authority were so evident that even nature worshiped Him.
And Paul told people in Lystra, "You should turn from these vain things to the living God, who made the heaven, the earth, the sea, and all things that are in them,.....he did not leave himself without witness, in that he did good, gave us rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness (Acts 14:15-17). To the church at Rome, Paul wrote: "For since the creation of the world his invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power". (Romans 1:20).
These verses remind me that God's work can be observed in nature. He created things to function in an orderly fashion and He continues to keep things in order. His handiwork is everywhere for me to see. I just need to look around.
But--Nature Is Not Enough--Though nature testifies that God does exist, in the end it is only God Himself who can give us knowledge of His own being. The Bible makes it clear that God's revelation of Himself in nature is not sufficient knowledge for sinful man to know Him. Nature, by itself, is not enough to know the God of the Bible. While the evidence from nature may give some secondary proof to God's existence, they certainly are not enough for anyone to know which God exists or what God expects from humanity. Nature cannot tell us anything about where sin came from, how it can be pardoned, or how to live a holy life. For these things we must go to God's written revelation--the Bible. Nature is a witness to God's might and power but it does not supply all the knowledge a sinner needs to develop a personal relationship with God. That is the job of God's written Word--the Bible. I like nature, but I need to study the written Word!
