The End...But Not

~This post is written to my fellow Christians. ~

It's interesting how there are signs of God and elements of Truth woven through culture and time, it's in Pagan lore, and it shows up in books by modern authors. There are elements of truth amongst the lies and confusion so prevalent in society.

I read an account of Ragnarok (The Twilight of the Gods), which is the tale of the end of the world in Norse mythology. Much of it was very similar to what has been told in The Bible and outlined in  Heaven, by Timothy Keller. Ragnorak contains a fight between the gods where the  world is destroyed. In the end though, the children of the gods survive and begin a new life in a beautiful fresh land. Ragnarok rightly states that the world will be destroyed and a new world created. However, instead of the children of the gods, the children of God will live there. (The children of God are those who believe in the saving power of Jesus' blood and adopted by God. "How great is the love the Father has lavished on us that we should be called children of God! For that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him." I John 3:1)

There are some books that I wouldn't recommend, but yet point towards the existence of God and of sin by portraying what can happen when one lives without God, which is the reality of life for many, many people. Waterland asks over and over: "Why?" It shows clearly the results of sin and the barriers it creates and how actions build upon each other so that you reap what you sow. The main character asks "Why?" but he knew why. He knew the pain he, his wife, and his father (and others) faced was the result of the wrong he (and they) had done, and this truth is slowly untangled throughout the story.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is another. I only read the first few chapters but I was just now struck with an allegory in this book --which I did not expect as this book makes light of God and contains crass imagery and innuendos (which are why I didn't finish it). In the story, Planet Earth was destroyed and Arthur Dent is presumably the only human to escape. He didn't have any luggage, he didn't get to take anything with him. The author wrote that the knowledge of Earth was just something that existed in his memory. For example  there was no place he could go to pull out a record and share the music of the Beattles with anyone. It was all gone. Like death and rebirth. None of your possessions come with you. But why was he the only human to survive the destruction of Earth? It wasn't by anything he did. His friend saved him. His friend was from another world who brought him along, Arthur Dent didn't do a thing, he just woke up inside an Alien spacecraft after the Earth was destroyed.

I believe the Earth will be destoyed. When people die, they take nothing with them, and the only thing that can save is Jesus. Fully God and fully man, he came from Heaven to Earth to save us from ourselves and from our sin, and our future home is in Heaven which will contain a new Earth, but this time there will be no sin and pain and suffering. Jesus is the friend who saves us.

The Details

Moss, Iceland

It is in the little things that I see God. In the tiny flowers, shiny acorns, lichen on rocks, and the multicolored sheen of a feather. When the timing and details work out. When He brings the right person along to comfort my lonely aching heart, or a stranger to get my vehicle out of a snowy rut, disentangle my gauchos from my bike chain (yes, that really did happen) or someone to walk me home in the dark. How could all these details that depend so much on the right timing or the right words at the right time have worked out just fine unless He was orchestrating them?

It's in these details that I see God's love and provision for me. It's also in the details that I learn of His existence.

Did God create the universe? Elementary! His fingerprints are all over creation. All evidence points to not only His existence, but His hand in crafting the universe and it's diversity.

On the molecular level, the intricacy of the details that have to work out just right for life to exist is astounding. There is no way they could have happened by chance.

If in my petty, day-to-day wishes, I don't get what I want or think I need, then I obviously didn't need them. He cares enough to teach me to be strong.

It's always been about the details for me. Small things are hugely important. It could be a beautiful day, and everything could be going my way, but if harmony was broken in some small way, it is as if a cavernous rift had opened.

Little things often upset me. The robe my mother gave me when I was a child was beautiful but it was itchy, and so was the long underwear. I cast them off, refusing to wear them ever again. I was a fussy baby: too hot, too cold, my clothes not soft enough. I fussed instead of slept unless my parents cradled me in their warm arms and I knew I was safe. How safe I find myself under the protection of my Heavenly Father!
When the details work out just so, it's like God is comfortingly laying his hand on my back, telling me that He is there, watching out for me. And who am I out of all the people in the world that He should care for me? Yet He is there, caring for all his children down to the minutiae of their lives, just as in mine.

Gullfoss, Iceland

As water flows over a cliff, it separates. The water descends in pieces, each sheet of water drops alone, yet together they sound the mighty roar of the cataract.  So may we all sound God's glory and might. Waterfalls speak to the mighty and terrifying power of God. Yet, they are made of tiny drops, and each drop is made of molecules, which are made of elements, which are made of protons, electrons, and neutrons, which, as some have begun to say, are made of something smaller still.

The details.The overwhelming, comforting, astonishing details! How I love them and how I love God for creating them and showing me His love through them.