Last summer I was invited to visit family up in beautiful New Hampshire. I couldn’t wait to go. Our destination: A private island in a super secret location. One sunny afternoon we all ventured outside after lunch, making sure we were clothed with a pair of rugged shoes and stocked up with plenty of water. Our heading was the 874 foot summit of the island. The view, as you can see above, is breathtaking. We conversed as long as we could until our breathing became labored due to the steep incline. During these silent moments I communed with God about a great many things. All much too private for this very public venue of Substack.
This much I can share: I am thankful that God, the Creator of all things, wants to have communion with me, a sinner saved by His grace. As we walked, I was reminded that God created all things good. Because of His desire for a relationship with His children, He created us. In His wisdom, He knows that true love is meaningless without choice. So He gave us the freedom to choose Him along with the freedom to reject Him.
For those who choose Him yields blessing beyond understanding but also the assurance of eternity with Him. This should not imply life will be perfect. Far from it. We still live in a world of evil, disease and ruination. We are affected and influenced by this reality. Rejecting Him assures us a life without the blessings which only He gives. A miserable, self seeking life indeed. Many enjoy a good life with all of their needs met and have no need of God nor do they choose to acknowledge Him. On the other hand if one was to life a life devoid of comfort and contentment yet had a relationship with the Creator, that person would still essentially have everything.
Every man and woman must choose for themselves whom they will serve. Or perhaps even what they will serve. Once the choice is made, a shift in responsibility occurs. We receive ownership of the consequences of our choices. We have only ourselves to blame. Since we are merely a part of creation, our choices are made from the perspective of the temporal based on observation and experience. When God speaks, He is the only one who is outside the constraints of time. This is extraordinary because it means He is able to see things which have not yet come to pass. He is aware of future events as though they have already happened. He knows what we need before we ask. All we can do is hope to make our best guess.
The nature of God is as unexplainable as the act of creation itself. He exists as the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. He is self existent. God has alway been about relationship. Out of all creation, we alone were created to have relationship with Him. Our finite minds are unable to comprehend this, at least mine is. It stands to reason that faith, belief and trust must fill the vacuum of limited revelation. The skeptic should know that God has not revealed all secrets of the universe but He has revealed how to have relationship with Him through His Son. I believe that faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. When I came to trust what The Lord has written and what He spoke into my heart, that was enough for me. He has honored His Word every day since.
Though day by day my body wastes away, and it is, my soul remains firmly at rest in His hands. The Creator of all things. Amen!
From the old and new Testaments:
“This is what the LORD says— your Redeemer, who formed you in the womb: I am the LORD, the Maker of all things, who stretches out the heavens, who spreads out the earth by myself.” Isaiah 44:24
For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse. Romans 1:20
Jim
Jim, that's a nice ridgeline photograph! Your family and you must have enjoyed a good hike together. As I've said many times, “a day in the woods adds a day to one's life!” Hiking theology works also! (See, as one example of many, my 12/30/2020 original website article, not on Substack. I have 46 articles on the topic of hiking.)
Over the years, I've taken family and friends hiking with me on “my mountain.” On the ridgeline, I have asked them to simply enjoy the view and to imagine God's view of his creation. Then, I have asked them to place temporal concerns into the everlasting perspective. Every family member or friend, to a person, has expressed appreciation and deep understanding.
Wisdom is the everlasting perspective that takes us to heaven -- by our active, obedient, and trusting faith (based on evidence) in the Creator. Heaven must have great hiking locations! I'm ready to hike the heavenly ridgelines!
Jim, every time I smell a flower, I think of the prayers offered up to our Lord. Nature is the creative work of the Living God. When we enjoy nature, we rub shoulders with the Creator of the Universe and beyond.