A million reasons to believe...

This is a Christmas shopping bag that Macy's used a couple of years ago. I found it in my closet and it got me to thinking. Maybe it's just because I cannot remember a time that I did not believe in God, and know instinctively that He is the Creator of all things, but I still find it difficult to understand how anyone can observe nature, or look up into the sky, and not believe. It is so much easier for me to believe in an intelligent designer who is bigger than me, than it is to try to imagine that everything we see in this world was some kind of random joining of cells and molecules that evolved over billions of years. It just doesn't even make common sense, because even if you took that theory all the way back to as far as you could imagine, there still had to be "something" to get things started. When God created, He made something out of nothing.

Last week I shot this simple photo from my kitchen slider window. I just happened to glance up at the sky right before sunset, and my heart was filled with awe, as it always is, to see this breathtaking beauty in nature.

Here is a wonderful passage of Scripture that I happened to read the same day I saw that moon from my kitchen window. The beautiful sky alone is a witness to the glorious Creator.

The heavens declare the glory of God;
the skies proclaim the work of his hands.

Day after day they pour forth speech;
night after night they display knowledge.

There is no speech or language
where their voice is not heard.

Their voice goes out into all the earth,
their words to the ends of the world.

Psalm 19:1-4

God was so intent on revealing Himself through nature that He even says that mankind is "without excuse" not to believe. I can't read Psalm 19 without remembering what is written in Romans 1. Because not only do the heavens declare God's glory, they also reveal His wrath. Have a look:

"The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 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 men are without excuse. For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools..."

Romans 1:18-22.

Not believing in God through His revelation in nature makes man a fool, He says. When we don't believe, our hearts become dark and our thinking becomes futile. Though we can see Him clearly through nature, man has forgotten to give God the thanks and praise He deserves. Won't you take a moment to look around at God's creation today and give Him thanks?

Praise the LORD.
Praise God in his sanctuary;
praise him in his mighty heavens.

Praise him for his acts of power;
praise him for his surpassing greatness.

Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet,
praise him with the harp and lyre,

praise him with tambourine and dancing,
praise him with the strings and flute,

praise him with the clash of cymbals,
praise him with resounding cymbals.

Let everything that has breath praise the LORD.
Praise the LORD.

Psalm 150