Council Community Church

Pastor's Corner

A “WOW!” KIND OF GOD

The setting is idyllic: father and son snuggled-up and leaning against a tree. The grass is green, the livestock are content, and the sun is poised to make its daily exit behind the hill. When it finally fades from view in a brilliant blaze of orange-red fire, the little boy says: “Wow! Do it again, Daddy!” A “Wow!” moment indeed.

Late last Friday night - VERY late – I had the opportunity to share one of these rare times with my boys. Our family milk cow, Mayfly, was giving birth. My sons had been around just before and just after a calf’s arrival, but had never experienced the moment of birth. So, in the soft glow of a solar-powered lantern, we sat in the hay and straw just a few feet from Mayfly as she delivered a beautiful little heifer into the world. Definitely a “Wow!” moment (especially since I didn’t have to pull the calf, like I did last year!). Black and glossy, the boys wanted to call her “Veil” or “Viz-Queen”.

Then, of course, came the first attempts to stand; which my 9-year-old described as: “Quite futile.” Once accomplished, however, the calf’s search for milk was on. Within an hour of birth the little rascal was licked clean by its momma, teetering around and nursing. What an amazing, beautiful event. Ranchers sometimes miss this in the midst of hundreds of animals and weeks of lost sleep during calving season (I know that I would), but the fact remains that it is an incredible thing.

But I thought of something else that night: I thought about the fact that for many years I was robbed of most of the wonder of times like this. I didn’t have the sense of awe which I now experience from seeing the Master’s handiwork. I was robbed of it because I had no knowledge of the Creator. I grew up totally immersed in a world-view and educational system that taught me that these “Wow!” moments were simply the product of pure chance and a lot of time. Consequently, these times were not an opportunity to taste God’s awesome creative touch, they were only the observation of luck plus billions of years (impressive, yes, but stripped of their true significance).

By the time I was halfway through elementary school I was losing my sense of God calling out to me in moments and experiences like this. I was being hardened by the belief that evolutionary processes had shaped everything, so there was no real regal mystery to life: we were all just part of one big machine, grinding away mindlessly. Where’s the meaning, excitement and romance in that?

I am discovering that for many – even those who have chosen to follow Jesus and accept His mastery over their lives – this is a silent killer of joy. People often want to take God and His written Word seriously, but everywhere they go it seems that they are under attack. The Bible says that Creation was the intimate, intentional, creative, personal act of the Living God. But then some say: “Science has conclusively shown that all life (and all of the wonder that goes along with it) has developed by pure chance over gazillions of years.” So is the Bible wrong? Is God truly dead, done away with by brilliant(?) human minds? Does science always trump faith? This is a stumbling stone for many – both Christian and pre-Christian.

The fact is that good, objective science, and the world that it studies, are in harmony with God and His Truth. Human pride may try to do away with the Creator, but systematic study of Creation can be a tremendous encouragement as we see evidence of God’s creative design. So we’re going to look at some of the beautiful, odd, awesome ways that the Lord communicates Himself through nature. Until next time, though, think about the origin of a calf’s instinct of where to go for milk. It couldn’t have gradually evolved, because the species would have been dead without it! May you enjoy many “Wow!” times with God this week (Jeremiah 32:17).