Past the Clay

If we look at the world around us we can dicern several things about God, just like one might discern certain things about a painter, from a painting he made. We can see that God is a creative God, with new things popping up at every twist and turn, things beyond what we can imagine. We can see that God loves beauty, for we see beauty in everything from the stars, to the faces of every person on earth. But there's something else that tends to fly under the radar, that I believe is just as important.

I have recently been taking a general biology class, with Kalahan and Sierra. For me one of the most astonishing things is that now matter how small the subject being studied, there was no end to the intricacy of God's creation. I thought wow if the universe is so complex, then God must be even more so for the painting cannot exceed the painter, but then i thought about how simple our idea of God was. Why was this? Well, to explain let me tell you a story:

Imagine if you will a small village, supported by a single ancient well, and inhabited my rather lazy people, who always take the easy route in every choice they make. One day our villagers are stunned to find that the well is dry. They come to the wise conclusion that a new well must be dug. However after only a couple of feet or so, they come upon thick clay. Instead of trying to dig through the tough layer of clay, they decide to dig elsewhere, but are frustrated to find the clay wherever they dig, but again, instead of exerting themselves, they simply drink the dirty water that seeps into all the shallow holes they dug, and as a result many become sick.

You may think the villagers rather dim to say the least, but this a good picture of the church today. We often refuse to struggle with the deeper issues, to learn about the troublesome things of God's character: How could God have allowed evil into the world? Why did he have the Israelites wipe out entire nations? If we choose to ignore these issues, not only will we miss out on a deeper understanding of your creator, savior and father, we, like our villagers, will become sick spiritually.

So dig deeper, work past the clay. It'll probably give you a headache, but trust me it will be worth it.


In Christ's love Aaron