God IS Our Environment
An observation exists out their on the internet, in various versions, and with various attributions. It is worth repeating, and it goes something like this ...
When God wanted to create fish, He turned to the sea. When God wanted to create trees, He turned to the earth. But when God wanted to create man, He turned to Himself. Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image and in Our likeness.”
If you take a fish out of water, it will die; and when you remove a tree from soil, it will also die. Likewise, when man is disconnected from God, he dies.
Conversely, water without fish is still water, but fish without water are nothing. Soil without trees is still soil, but a tree without soil is nothing. God without man is still God, but man without God is nothing.
It continues,
God IS our natural environment. We were created to live in His presence. We have to be connected to Him because it is only in Him that true life exists. And in plugging into Him, he grants us dominion over all else.
"Then God said, 'Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth'” (Genesis 1:26, ESV).
"And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, for 'In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said, 'For we are indeed his offspring’" (Acts 17:26-28, ESV).
"I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing" (John 15:5).
It's Time for a Trim and a Shave
Imagine a customer at a barber getting his hair and beard trimmed when the barber and patron strike up a conversation. They talk about many things and various topics, and for a moment, the topic shifts to God.
The barber says, "I don't believe God exists."
"Why do you say that?" asked the customer.
"Well, just look out there in the street. What happens out there shows that God doesn't exist. Tell me, if God exists, why are there sick people? Why are there abandoned children? If God exists, surely there would be no sickness or suffering. I can't imagine a loving God would let all this happen."
The customer pauses to think for a moment, but doesn't respond, not wanting to start an argument. The topic changes, the barbar finishes his work, and the customer leaves the shop.
He no sooner walks out the door than he sees a man on the street with long, unkempt hair, dirty and tangled, with an untrimmed beard. The man looked dirty and neglected.
The customer turns on a dime and marches back into the shop, "You know what? Barbers don't exist!"
The barber objects, "How can you say that? I am here, and I am a barber. And I just cut your hair!"
"No!" the customer retorts boldly, pointing out the window. "Barbers don't exist, because if they did, there would be no people with long, dirty hair and untrimmed beards like that man out there."
"But barbers do exist!" the barber argues. "What you see is their own fault; why don't they come to me?"
"Exactly!" the customer agreed. "That's the whole point!"
The argument that God must NOT exist because ugliness and evil does, is nothing but a strawman fallacy of the ultimate proportion.
In this ugly, unkempt, messy, stinky, dirty world, God indeed exists. Yet it is up to US to seek Him. And once we seek Him, it is up to US to actually settle into His chair to let Him conform us into a more beautiful image ... into HIS image!
"You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart" (Jeremiah 29:13, ESV).
"And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit" (2 Corinthians 3:18, ESV).
"For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers" (Romans 8:29, ESV).
"Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect" (Romans 12:2, ESV).
"And have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator" (Colossians 3:10, ESV)."And to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness" (Ephesians 4:24, ESV).
Designed for Purpose
Objects are sometimes used for purposes other than their original design. Who hasn't used a hair pin or a butter knife to unlock a closet door, or a baseball bat as bedside protection? And while we might use a book as a door stop or coffee table decor, books were designed to be a wealth of information. Their value is in their words, in accomplishing their purpose to inform, entertain, persuade, inspire, etc.
Why am I here? What is my purpose? So often we busy ourselves with life’s numerous distractions, constantly going through motions, without ever really tapping into our true purpose.
Sometimes we go about life making our own way, deciding our own use. But we will never be fuflly satisfied (nor fully productive!) until we are walking in the purpose we were uniquely designed to fulfill.
So how can we know our true purpsoe? Just as we can know any object’s purpose — just look at its design and its designer!
Only the Designer has the right to assign purpose. We were made in His image (Genesis 1:27). We are thus called to, "Imitate God, therefore, in everything [we] do, because [we] are his dear children (Ephesians 5:1, NLT). And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God (v.2, ESV).
"For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them" (Ephesians 2:10, ESV).
"And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose" (Romans 8:28, ESV).