Editor's Note: This is chapter 4 of a book titled Maker of the Morning by Al Cornell, He is a wildlife technician with the Wisconsin DNR as well as a part-time preacher for the Baraboo, Wisconsin, Church of Christ. Enjoy!
As we enjoyed the splendor of our surroundings, I asked the children if the scene brought any song to mind. Several responded quickly, "Blue Skies and Rainbows." One verse of that song reads, "Tall mountains, green valleys, their beauty surrounds me, all make me aware of the one who fashioned it all." Part of our faith in God comes from a perception of His universe.
There is a sense of the presence of God that can be felt through nature. When snow melts from a mountain side and pasque flowers and glacier lilies bloom, there is a feeling in the air that God has just touched this spot. Go back later when western columbine and fireweed bloom and feel it again. Or if you're not on the mountain, try it among hepaticas and spring beauty or some of the immense variety or other flowers in other places. To those who suppose that chance could have been so lucky as to bring about complexity, I must ask, "How could it have been so artistic as to fashion loveliness?" Flowers and butterflies, warblers and rainbows speak to the soul.
The soul, spoken to, may respond in praise. A. W. Discus, a distinguished physicist of the mid-1900s, let loose the praise on his heart in writing the words of the song "Our God, He is Alive." The first stanza reads, "There is, beyond the azure blue, a God concealed from human sight; He tinted skies with heavenly hue, and formed the worlds with His great might."
The third stanza of Discus' song grabbed my attention: "Secure, is life from mortal mind, God holds the germ within His hand; though men may search, they cannot find, for God alone does understand."
Though scientists do map and splice genes, there is something so very elusive about life. Discus wrote the words of that song about a decade after Watson and Crick determined the structure of the DNA molecule. It was about the same time that terribly exaggerated headlines were appearing in newspapers, proclaiming that life had been created in a test-tube.
To this day, there remains a lot of disagreement over how far people will be able to go with the manipulation of the code of life and the synthetic production of it. When some speculate that man will produce life, we must still question what they mean. Life from scratch without any help from living organisms along the way, or exactly what?
Coming from the mind of a prestigious scientist, Discus' words almost seem to carry a sense of challenge--"though men may search, they cannot find." Nineteenth century scientists bragged frequently that mankind would come to know everything about nature through the scientific method. That has changed immensely. God looms more awesome and majestic behind a universe more complex than was imagined.
From Job's "Morning stars sang together" to Discus' "He tinted skies with heavenly hue," we see a response from the human heart to the beauty and expanse of the universe. For many, faith in the Creator is the natural result of this amazing cosmos surrounding us. Each new piece of information that we learn about the universe testifies to the power of the One who made it all.
Paul spoke of this testimony at a more fundamental level. He said, "And yet He did not leave Himself without witness, in that He did good and gave you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness" (Acts 14:17).
A psalmist takes us to the mountain stream: "He sends forth
springs in the valleys; they flow between the mountains;...Beside
them the birds of the heavens dwell; they lift up their voices
among the branches" (Psalm 104:10,12). From things small
and ordinary to things vast and incomprehensible come repeated
lessons of faith. God exists. He made it all.
Back to Contents Does God Exist?, Jan/Feb 1997