Fingerprints

God has made the world. He crafted every plant, animal, mineral, and human that has ever existed. He is the originator of everything that one can see, feel, smell, and taste. However, the perfect world that perfectly reflected the design and glory of its Creator no longer exists. That world was tainted and gradually destroyed by sin. Even now, the world is degrading farther and farther away from the original state. Plants fade away. Animals die; and species go extinct. Humans grow sick and die despite all our advances in medicine. Human society faces greater and greater challenges as the centuries bring us closer to the end of time. Despite this degradation, small reminders of God exist in His created beings. Each landscape, flower, insect, animal, human, society, and culture reflect a small amount of their original glory. One just has to look closely.

Look carefully at the world around you, for all things, from the ordinary to the extraordinary, from the great to the small, from the obvious to the obscure, bear the fingerprints of God.

Paradox

"A most ingenious paradox!"

You might recognize this quote from The Pirates of Penzance. A paradoxical idea is what in the end saves the day, for someone who has a birthday on February 29th might be a certain number of years old, but he  has had only a small number of birthdays. A paradox -- two opposing truths.

Paradoxes are not limited to Gilbert and Sullivan musicals. Truths exist about the world that seem to be in opposition. For example, society at large says that a man should love his family above all else, but God says to love Him to the extent that one's love for his family appears to be hate. Society teaches you that one should respect everyone else's opinion and allow them to express what they think freely. God demands that His followers follow His commands only. In our minds, both of these idea systems seem to be right, but God demands almost the exact opposite. How can one, then, reconcile these ideas?

Here's the low-down. God created the world to run His way. It's not really meant to be run man's way. However, if we learn to truly love God, then we will learn to truly love our family. If we learn to commit to God's way of thinking, then we can truly understand how other people think, for God is the source of knowledge and understanding.

So, yes, the world and God hold similar values in certain areas, but the world will never be able to achieve its goals because the world's system of thought will never seek God as its primary source of truth. It will try to solve its problems without Him. Trying to do something right the wrong way is still wrong.

Do the right thing by seeking God first -- another star counted.