| If there were nothing else to
confirm my faith, I would be compelled to believe
in the Creator based on the very nature of His
creation. Like so many others, I am inspired by
the sheer beauty abounding throughout the
universe. But what really moves me is the
complexity and interplay of the components of
life. In
college, one of my majors was biology. The
awesome intricacy of a single cell boggles the
mind. No molecular accident could have produced
this! It had to have been created by a loving and
intelligent power far beyond our pitiful
comprehension. It had to have been a product of
the mind of God.
Consider the
spider's web or the sparrow's nest. Mama spiders
and sparrows don't teach their young to construct
them. God is the instructor.
He's our
teacher, too, but in a different way. You see, He
gave us an exclusive gift - free agency. We can
make choices. The Lord offers teaching about
making wise choices, but we're not always very
good students. Sometimes we refuse to learn,
other times, we think we already know the lesson!
We have a text
book, the Bible, which spells out all the lessons
quite clearly. Yet we may not read it as we
ought. Sometimes we read but twist the meaning to
make it say what we want to hear.
We have pastors
to guide us in our life lessons, but like many a
reluctant student, we choose to criticize the
teacher rather than listen to a hard teaching.
Our Father no
doubt knew what slovenly students we would be, so
He placed lessons all about us. We cannot escape
the beauty of a sunset, the power of a
thunderstorm or the joy of a playful kitten...
and in each of these is the face of God.
The following
short essay submitted by Patti Crist is a good
example of how God uses the marvelous wonders of
nature to teach us about who He is and who we
are:
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Learning from a Silly
Goose When you see geese flying along in
"V" formation, you might consider what
science has discovered as to why they fly that
way. As each bird flaps its wings, it creates an
uplift for the bird immediately following. By
flying in "V" formation, the whole
flock adds at least 71 percent greater flying
range than if each bird flew on its own.
People who share
a common direction and sense of community can get
where they are going more quickly and easily
because they are traveling on the thrust of one
another.
When a goose
falls out of formation, it suddenly feels the
drag and resistance of trying to go it alone -
and quickly gets back into formation to take
advantage of the lifting power of the bird in
front.
If we have as
much sense as a goose, we will stay in formation
with those people who are headed the same way we
are.
When the head
goose gets tired, it rotates back in the wing and
another goose flies point.
It is sensible
to take turns doing demanding jobs, whether with
people or with geese flying south.
Geese honk from
behind to encourage those up front to keep up
their speed.
What messages do
we give when we honk from behind?
Finally - and
this is important - when a goose gets sick or is
wounded by gunshot, and falls out of formation,
two other geese fall out with that goose and
follow it down to lend help and protection. They
stay with the fallen goose until it is able to
fly or until it dies, and only then do they
launch out on their own, or with another
formation to catch up with their group.
If we have the
sense of a goose, we will stand by each other
like that.
Submitted by
Patti Crist
Source Unknown
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