Choosing Not to See

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Back when the space program was something of wonder and worth one astronaut, Yuri Gagarin, made the astounding statement that he hadn’t found God while he was up there. I suppose that was imagined by some to be proof that God didn’t exist. Odd to be surrounded by the proof and not to see it.

Job 22:12 says: “Is not God in the heights of heavens? And see how lofty are the highest stars!”

Silly boy! You didn’t go far enough. In your arrogance and ignorance you assumed that you had reached those heights. You assumed that you could see the One Who fills the heavens. He was all around you and you didn’t see Him, wouldn’t have seen Him, couldn’t have seen Him, didn’t want to see Him.

That poor space traveler is not the only one to ignore the obvious, something so obvious that a trip on a shuttle isn’t even necessary to observe it.

Psalm 19 tells us: “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. In the heavens he has pitched a tent for the sun, which is like a bridegroom coming forth from his pavilion, like a champion rejoicing to run his course. It rises at one end of the heavens and makes its circuit to the other; nothing is hidden from its heat.” (vv.1-6)

As I sit here in my office, I can see the rising sun, that champion eager to run his course. Though that movement is only a perception, since it is not the sun itself that moves, the picture is a good one. Every day that the cycle is observed, God speaks. God is seen.

But there is other evidence. As Paul said to the Athenians in Acts 17: "The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each of us. For in him we live and move and have our being...he commands all people everywhere to repent. For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead." (vv. 24-31)


If you don’t see it, hear it, then perhaps it is simply because you aren’t paying attention.