God, are you there?

My husband and I are enjoying a small group study that tackles some tough subjects, among them how the universe reveals evidence of God. The Bible itself says creation points to God, and even a glance out the window — or in a mirror — reveals some pretty solid evidence of not only the complexity of life, but the miracle of it.


Here are a few interesting facts my husband and I were discussing in light of our study. And believe me, if I can understand these basic facts, anyone can (science-lover or not!).


Let’s start big, with the miracle of where our solar system sits in our vast universe:


Our solar system is perfectly placed between spiral arms. What does that mean? If we were any closer to these arms, we’d never survive all of the star activity. Since we need a magnetic field to shield us from our own star (our trusty, reliable, stable sun), you can imagine how difficult it would be to exist around exploding stars.


We’re also a long way from the galactic center, where there is a black hole. What’s a black hole? I have no idea, except that I’m told they’re spots in the universe that are so dense, once light goes in it can’t escape. The mass of the universe is just right to sustain life here, even though the universe is so huge – more mass would mean only heavy elements would be produced, less mass would mean only light elements. There are elements all around us, Hydrogen, helium (lightest ) and lead, iron among the heavier ones. But our planet is just right to produce a mix, allowing and sustaining life.


Our earth “happens” to sit in the life-habitable zone of all the rings surrounding our sun. We can’t be too close (ouch!), or too far (brrrr….). And did you know since Jupiter just “happens” to be so big, it protects us from bombardment of things like comets and asteroids?


The moon is just the right size to keep the tilt of the earth’s axis stable. Compared to other planets similar in size to earth, our moon is larger, but it needs to be this way to sustain life. Goodness, aren’t we lucky?


And by the way, it’s not that water is so rare in the universe, it’s that we have just the right amount of it. In comparison to other planets, we actually have less, in some cases much less. Our oceans are maintained by the right atmosphere, transferring heat from warm regions of the globe to cold regions, they absorb carbon dioxide, and the biological inhabitants are necessary to keep the whole thing balanced.


Then there is the amazing information that’s involved in human DNA – no matter how finite the examination of the body, we’re a perfectly logical, designed machine. Even secular scientists have a hard time resisting a creator’s fingerprint in this area, and coupled with the trouble of finding the origin of life, many have resorted to looking elsewhere – out to space – for life’s beginning.


Well, they need look no further than Heaven…


Some of those who find it increasingly difficult to ignore the existence of God prefer to think if “a God” did design the whole thing, that’s all He did. He started us going then disappeared, off to play God in other places. Nothing personal, He just created us and left us alone.


But not long ago I heard the best argument against such a thought. How could God create us to be personal, and not be personal Himself? Can the creator create something greater than Himself? Or did he choose to create us as personal beings, capable of love and relationship, but not want to be part of that Himself?


Of course to me it’s obvious: God is a personal being and that’s why He created us as personal beings as well. We’re made in His image. That’s just one more reason the Bible makes so much sense to me. It’s called the Word of God because it reveals itself as divine in so many ways: from the creation account to historical facts, to the prophecies to its understanding of the human condition (morality). I may not have an extensive knowledge of any one of these facets, but even what little I do know seems too great to be ignored.


So this week, I hope you find some time to read from the most incredible book man has ever known …

Jumping to the ARCs of my book Bees in the Butterfly Garden seems a bit trivial in light of God, creation and the Bible, but call me human: in one breath I can go from praising God to just plain fun. And giving away books is fun!


After collecting all of the comments from my two Facebook pages, Goodreads and here on my blog, I randomly drew four names. Drumroll, please! Those names are:






LeLe
Barbara Anne Waite
Jill Smith
Patricia Kemp






Congratulations, ladies! I’ll be in touch so you can let me know how to send the books to you.