A Question for God
I’m participating in a program at our parish called “Alpha.” Its aim is to discuss basic questions about God – including God’s existence – about who Jesus is, or was, about the nature of faith and a half dozen other such questions. The program is mainly aimed at the “un-churched,” including the “nones,” the people who answer “none” when asked in survey questions what religion they profess.
First, a word about such a program. Some believers, including many Christians, may see little value in them, saying that people who are interested in a religion can go to any church on any street corner in America – or many other places in the world – and join up. We believers should do our own thing and leave others to theirs.
Evidently, people with this view have little interest in or knowledge of what is prescribed in the Christian Bible, in passages such as this one toward the end of Mark’s gospel: “And he said to them, ‘Go out to all the world; proclaim the good news to all creation.’” And just what is “the good news?” Well, that’s a whole other blog.
Listening
The program’s sessions mostly involve church members listening to those who are “non-believers” but, like all of us, are searching for God. Pope Francis is quoted as saying about evangelization – the term used to describe proclaiming the good news of the gospel – “The first thing to do is listen.”
One of the “icebreakers” at the beginning of our group’s discussion was a question about a question: Assuming that God exists, what question would you like to ask him/her?
Having begun reading the book, “The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate,” by Peter Wohlleben, my question to God was, “How did you do it?”
The book describes the chemical and electrical processes in trees that was known in 2016, when the book was first published. All of the processes, above and below ground, are intricate, complex and astonishing. The process of photosynthesis, sort of the equivalent of digestion in animals, involves sunlight, of course, but also a network of roots that interact with other trees and interchanges with fungi, insects and animals.
A Walk in the Woods
But you don’t have to read such a book to be astonished by creation. You can take a walk in the woods, or a neighborhood, look out your window or examine your hands, notice how rabbits scrounge for food in the wintertime, examine a full moon, or look through a microscope or telescope at practically anything.
The world, indeed, the universe, is wondrous. It should evoke awe, not indifference. And it should make it impossible to ignore life’s big questions: “How did it all come to be?” “Who or what is responsible?” And “How did God do it?”
Christians and other believers in God often say they find God in nature and as I age, I better understand this observation. If you are open to it, you can’t help but be impressed by what you experience in the natural world.
As many readers of this blog know, my wife, Amparo, and I recently moved from Iowa to Colorado. Iowa has its own beauty, but Colorado’s natural wonders are harder to ignore.
Huge Herds of Elk
In our little town south of Denver, deer regularly stroll through the neighborhood, looking for something to nibble on. Occasionally, on my bike rides at the edges of town, I come across huge herds of elk. Pines, including the majestic Ponderosa, are everywhere. Magpies, the inquisitive black-and-white version of crows common in the mountain west, squawk and argue. Owls hoot, seemingly trying to keep you awake at night. And from most of the trails and sidewalks in town, the front range of the Rockies, capped with tons of snow at this time of year, shouts for attention that I never fail to give.
You can be impressed with creation anywhere, of course. It’s all incredible, all worth observing, all meriting appreciation for the astonishing act of creation.
You can deduce a lot about God, who is unknowable directly, by observing the natural world – much in the way scientists learn about the universe by observing the results of God’s work. But you need not stop there. You can also seek God through Scripture, prayer and other people.
