Playing Hide and Seek With God
According to Brittanica.com, hide-and-seek was [first] described by a Greek writer named Julius Pollux in the 2nd century BCE, which is really taking it way back. He calls the game apodidraskinda and describes it as something nearly identical to today's version of hide-and-seek.
Throughout the history of the childhood game Hide-and-Seek, with its roots believed to date back to ancient Greece [and probably beyond], there has never been a hider who didn’t know they were hiding. After all, the game often requires participants to squeeze into uncomfortable spaces and hold their breath when the seeker gets too close.
Likewise, living in denial of God’s existence takes considerable effort. For example, it is a daunting challenge to avoid the implications of an exquisitely choreographed and infinitely complex universe. Without the hand of God, how could everything materialize from a void of nothingness? And even if that could be explained, how did interdependent layers of complexity and design emerge from simplicity? And even if sense could be made of that, how did life then burst forth from the barren womb of lifeless matter?
Given the contortions required to explain the universe without appealing to a Creator, it’s safe to say that, beneath all the bother, there has never been a hider who didn’t know they were hiding from God.
This includes the eminent evolutionary biologist and professional God-dodger, Richard Dawkins, who provocatively declared, “Biology is the study of complicated things that give the appearance of having been designed for a purpose.” Dawkins candidly acknowledged that living organisms “overwhelmingly impress us with the appearance of design, as if by a master watchmaker.”
Yet, in a plot twist rivaling an M. Night Shyamalan movie, Dawkins asserts that the breathtaking design we observe in the cosmos isn’t real! This baffling conclusion is based on his contention that God isn’t real either. As the logic goes, if there is no God, then we can’t attribute purpose or intent to anything that we observe in nature.
Naturalists like Dawkins argue that the cosmos only appears to be a masterpiece of design. Thus, it’s not the facts of a well-designed universe that they seek to avoid as much as the Grand Architect to whom those facts point.
Despite the appearance of a well-designed universe, we are asked to believe that the cosmos came about without conscious guidance. In other words, the universe is sending mixed messages.
But let's be real—the only telltale sign a Grand Designer would leave is, well, the appearance of design! To dismiss the idea of a Designer, in the face of the very proof one would expect to find, shows that even the most convincing evidence can be brushed aside when it doesn't fit a predetermined narrative. Even evidence acknowledged as “overwhelming” is inexplicably dismissed.
To avoid replicating this mistake, we must be willing to scrutinize our presuppositions as rigorously as we examine our facts. Otherwise, our assumptions take the driver’s seat, relegating the facts to passenger status.
"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 1:20, ESV).
"By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible" (Hebrews 11:3, ESV).
"For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him" (Colossians 1:16, ESV).
Of Sea Otters and God's Safe Keeping
Weighing between 40 and 100 pounds, the sea otter is the world's smallest (and maybe most adorable) species of marine mammal, while at the same time being the heaviest member of the weasel family.
Sea otters have voracious appetites and relish eating abalone, clams, and other marine species. With their high metabolism, they consume about 25 percent of their weight in food every day.
While there were once around a million sea otters in the North Pacific, aggressive fur-trade hunting in the early 1900s decimated their numbers to just over a thousand worldwide.
Today, after laws were passed to protect them, it is estimated that there are about 106,000 sea otters. However, they are still categorized as endangered.
What made the pelts of sea otters so valuable that these creatures were nearly hunted to extinction? Unlike other marine mammals, sea otters don't have a layer of blubber to keep them warm. Instead, they have the densest fur in the animal kingdom, ranging from 250,000 to a million hairs per square inch. By comparison, the average human head contains 100,000 hair follicles.
Whether you're as bald as a baby or you have 250,000 hairs per square inch of scalp, God is lovingly concerned with every detail of your life and that every hair of your head is numbered. Jesus said, "Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin? And not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father's will. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered" (Matthew 10:29-30, NIV).
In Psalm 139:14 David said, "I praise You becuase I am fearfully and wonderfully made"
All Creation Has A Song
Some creatures are so quiet, they appear to make no sound at all.
"There are at least 200,000 species out there singing in ways that are silent to us, and that's way more songs than if you add up all of the birds and the fish and the whales and the frogs out there," says Rex Cocroft, a biologist at the University of Missouri who is fascinated by creatures that only use vibrations to communicate.
Cocroft recently managed to record the sound of a treehopper. The treehopper shakes their abdomen 100 times a second to produce a low sound that vibrates through the stem of the plant they are standing on. While that sound is audible to other treehoppers, it’s outside the frequency that humans can hear. Cocroft had to use a specialized piece of equipment, a vibrometer, which uses a laser to detect minute vibrations on the surface of an object. Using this, he was able to record the sound and allow us to hear treehoppers in conversation.
We ALL have a song to sing unto the Lord. Some of us shout it from the church platform or choir loft, and some sing quietly in "psalms and hymns and spiritual songs" in our hearts. But regardless of tenor or volume, all Creation sings the glory of the Creator. And if we somehow choose to be silent, the Lord Himself declares that “[even] the stones will cry out!” (Luke 19:4).
"Everything on earth will worship you; they will sing your praises, shouting your name in glorious songs" (Psalms 66:4, NLT).
"Oh come, let us sing to the Lord; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation! Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!" (Pslams 95:1-2, ESV).