I love what Max Lucado said in one of his recent devotions: “The Bible says that ‘The heavens declare the glory of God!’ Our universe is God’s preeminent missionary. Doesn’t a painting suggest a painter? Don’t stars suggest a star maker? Doesn’t creation imply a creator?”1
In (Psalm 19:1) King David shares one of the most profound observations in all of Scripture when he states: “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.” We know that our awesome God has two ways in which he reveals Himself to us. Clearly, the most important is special revelation. This speaks of God letting Himself be known to us through the written revelation contained in the Holy Bible. But the second type – natural revelation or nature – reveals attributes of His creative genius that should leave us in holy awe at the majesty of God’s creation. Indeed, whether we reflect on the vastness of our universe or the minuteness of a human cell both display beauty and complexity that only an all loving and powerful God could create.
Special revelation – the Bible – states that our universe is indeed God’s preeminent missionary when it says: “The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.” (Romans 1:18-20).
In our world today there are hundreds of millions of people that have never heard the name of Jesus. However, when they look up at the sky at the stars above, at the vastness of our oceans, or at the brilliant colors of a rainbow – these silent yet majestic missionaries – clearly testify to God’s existence. And I just have to believe that our God of love will reveal Himself to those who bow in worship to the Creator of the universe. To those who acknowledge God’s existence additional revelation will be given.
On a personal note, I can still vividly remember going on an overnight field trip with my high school class to the northern tip of New York State. We traveled almost 400 miles from New York City and arrived at night. When we got out of the bus I will never forget looking up at the sky and seeing literally hundreds of stars. It was like being in a planetarium; only better. As I gazed at the stars, as a teenage atheist, I couldn’t help but think how immense our universe is. Today, looking back at this experience as a Christian, I believe that God used this trip to introduce His majesty to me in a spectacular way.
Today, thanks to the advances in science, we have unlocked much of the secrets of the human cell, and as vast and awesome are the stars above, the tiny world of the human cell, with all of its sophisticated parts, has convinced many an atheistic scientist that there must be a God who created our universe.
My friends whether we point our telescopes upward at the myriad of stars above, or our microscopes downward at the tiny ultra-complex world within our human cells, we are left with only one conclusion: There must be a God who created our exquisite universe. No wonder the Apostle Paul tells us in (Romans 1) that when we look at the universe we are without excuse as to the existence of God for indeed “the heavens declare the glory of God.”