Clear applications

 

                                                    (A mimosa tree, more on that later)

Today, it's time to draw out some applications from our studies of this past week.

First, God's creation should certainly "do a number" on our pride. The natural outgrowth of considering His creation is that we will be humble in His presence. The Bible tells us that the human race is both fallen and arrogant - we all have a tendency to exalt ourselves, to be proud, to ignore the reality of our existence depending upon God. 

The truth (if we will admit it) is that we are not like God. He alone is the almighty and all powerful Creator. We can't speak ANYTHING into existence! He spoke, and our universe was created!  This also means that we can't use God for our own selfish purposes. He doesn't exist to make us happy as we trundle down the path of our own selfish, sinful goals. He is sovereign, and we need to humble ourselves and submit to our awesome Creator and Redeemer.

Secondly, we must be careful that we don't allow modern evolutionary theories to infect our thinking. I realize that some who read here may not like this, but I believe the Spirit wants me to post it. 

Evolution is actually not scientific. It's a religious faith that enables proud humans to act as their own gods. It's almost always presented as fact, not theory, and those who point out its failings are ridiculed. But evolutionists cannot explain how the complexities of the natural world came to be - except through chance, random selection, and incredible odds over billions of years. They also are forced to attribute exceptional intelligence to lower forms of life, or to fall back on the quaint concept of "Mother Nature," who they say mystically equipped our world with amazing creatures.

We are talking about huge leaps of faith, here.

But in reality, there is no such thing as Mother Nature. There is Father God, the Creator!

There are as many examples of this foolishness as there are classrooms across the earth. Tales of tadpoles who "wanted" to move about on dry land and altered their anatomy and much more. Well known academics are just as susceptible (or perhaps more so) as kids in classrooms.

I read of one example in a sermon by Stephen Cole (thank you for the synopsis!) about Dr. Lewis Thomas, a scientist, physician and author who was hailed at his death as one who "clarified the mysteries of biology" (New York Times). His pompously named "Late Night Thoughts on Listening to Mahler's Ninth Symphony" gave this ludicrous example. . . . Thomas told about an amazing beetle which depends upon the mimosa tree for reproducing its kind. (See, I told you we'd get back to that photo of the mimosa tree!) 

Thomas described this momma beetle as having three consecutive "thoughts" that were consistently in the correct order. First, she searches for a mimosa tree, for no other tree will do. Then she crawls out on a limb, cuts a slit, and deposits her eggs. Then, since the larvae won't survive in live wood, she climbs back up the limb and chews a nice, neat girdle through the bark, making a circle all around the limb. This may take about eight hours to accomplish. But it effectively kills the limb, and when it falls off, her young beetles will survive.

Are you impressed yet, with the reasoning powers of this beetle? (Grin)

Well, here's the kicker: momma beetle is also an awfully smart horticulturalist. If the mimosa tree is left unpruned, it has a life of about thirty years. If it is pruned by the beetles, the tree will live for a hundred years or so, and provide nurseries for more baby beetles.

In Thomas's writings, he asks rhetorically how those three thoughts emerged in the beetle's "mind." And how did the mimosa tree enter the equation.....His conclusion is both humorous and myopic: "It is good for us to have around such creatures as this insect and its partner tree, for they keep reminding us how little we know about nature."

Hmmmm, Dr. Thomas? A word with you, please? (Not really, he passed away some years ago.)

The actual take-away from this story is not how little we know about nature. It's how little we know about and appreciate the Creator!

It's awe-inspiring to consider His work in designing and creating the complex and intricate partnerships of His creation. The world He made is full of examples of creatures who exist together in beneficial relationships. Some of the symbiosis stories are down to the molecular level. 

Amazing? Yes.

Humbling? Yes indeed. 

Both amazing and humbling if we will consider with open minds and recall that evolution is a theory. Just a theory. There is no way to apply the scientific method (that we learned in school) to evolution! That method requires that we first observe, then form a hypothesis and finally through repeated experiments show that the hypothesis works - to be able to experiment again and again with the same results. We cannot do that with evolution; it is a theory which has become a religious faith for those who avoid the truth of a Creator.

I'll climb down off my soapbox now, and close with our last application. The many amazing things in this world that God created should direct our hearts and minds to worship Him. The God Who designed it all, and spoke things into being, is worthy of our worship. As we walk, run, or drive around in this beautiful world, let's look beyond ourselves to the loving Father Who made it all, and made us, too, in His image. Our hearts will overflow in praise to Him.

Next week, we will move on from knowing God through His creation, to knowing God more fully through His Word.