Weekend Words

From Beside the Still Waters devotional...

Have You Seen God? - Read Psalm 19, John 1:1-18

Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed. - John 20:29

"Seeing is believing" is an old adage frequently used to establish the veracity of an unusual claim.  "Have you seen God?" a trucker asked me one morning at the shop where I worked.  My affirmative response was gruffly dismissed as he determined that the conversation would proceed no further.  While my answer certainly is not in harmony with natural man's reasoning, in one sense it is sound and irrefutable.  For example, have you ever seen the wind?  Can you describe its dimensions, its form or its colour?  What is it composed of, and what is its life span?

"The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and wither it goeth" (John 3:8)  Although the presence of the wind and its effects in the world are easily manifest, the wind itself eludes the sight of man.  Foolish indeed would be the one who denied its existence because he cannot see it.  So it is with God.  The beautiful natural world that He created gives plain evidence of the existence of the wonderful God whom we see with eyes of faith.

Upon completion of His masterpiece of creation, "God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good" (Genesis 1:31).  The universal and invariable laws of gravity, of thermodynamics, and of entropy reveal a God of perfect order.  A new born baby and a repentant sinner clearly reveal a merciful and loving God, the Author of both physical and spiritual life.  And even though "no man hath seen God at any time" (John 1:18), He has been "declared" by His Son - the clearest revelation of God ever given.  Now can you see God?

Pete Lewis - Halsey, OR

Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now you see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. - 1 Peter 1:8

Each time you look up in the sky
Or watch the fluffy clouds drift by,
Or feel the sunshine
warm and bright,
Or watch the dark night
turn into light,
Or hear a bluebird sweetly sing,
Or see the winter turn into spring,
Or touch a leaf or see a tree.
It’s all God whispering,
“This is Me…”

Helen Steiner Rice