Road Trip: America the Beautiful

On day two in Colorado we headed down from Denver to Colorado Springs to visit the Garden of the Gods. It was April (just barely) and the morning was freezing with a little sleet mixed in for good measure. In the afternoon it cleared up a bit but it was still windy and cold. However, we endeavored to at least drive through the Garden of the Gods as we had heard that it was a spectacular site.

We weren't disappointed. In the foothills of the majestic Rocky Mountains there are some magnificent rock formations that display the artistic wonder of our Creator. At least that's what I thought I saw.

What I am told is that what I actually saw was created 65 million years ago when 1.5 billion year old granite rock heaved sandstone to the surface as the Ancestral Rocky Mountains were formed. Millions of years of rain and wind then formed these beautiful formations. Of course all of this started when some cosmic reaction happened by chance billions of years ago to form this earth, its beauty and all of us lucky organisms that grew from the goo.

Why is it that we can’t look at the beauty that God has created and just be amazed without putting it all into a nice tight box? We either can’t accept there is a Creator or if there is one, we want to make Him just an initiator of some cosmic event that started it all. We can’t accept a purposeful Creator that can create the beauty around us by just speaking it into existence.

Why do we make God either non-existent or non-relevant?

Because if God is who He says He is, we have to face who we are in light of God’s greatness. We’re not God and we’re not a part of God. We’re a creation, a creature. A creature created in the image of God but a creature that wanted more and still wants more.

So, we say there is no God, or at least no relevant God, and everything around us happened by chance. But, can there really be beauty by random chance? Are our art museums filled with paintings that happened when an artist’s cat knocked over the paint?

The writing is on the wall, the mountains, the stars and the sunsets. It’s time to face up to who we are and who God is. It’s time for the creature to humble itself before the Creator.

Romans 1:19-20 (ESV)
19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.
20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.