“Have you entered the storehouses of the snow or seen the storehouses of the hail? . . . From whose womb comes the ice? Who gives birth to the frost from the heavens when the waters become hard as stone, when the surface of the deep is frozen? (Job 39:22, 29-30)
The end of 2009 has been beautiful—with snow either falling or fallen since well before Christmas. I say, “If we have to have winter, let’s have it with snow!” Some of the snowfalls have been of the mesmerizing sort: the air filled with giant flakes ambling downward tipping and twirling slow enough that you can follow one flake from sky to touchdown.
It was during just one of those snowfalls several years ago that a thought suddenly overwhelmed me: materiality is the miracle. What I came to understand is that we are living in the miracle. If God the Father is spirit and did create and continues to create and sustain all things through Christ the Son, then the ultimate reality that makes our visible material existence possible is found in the invisible spiritual realm. The material world that we see, feel, hear, smell, and taste is God’s persistent miracle (Hebrews 1:3, Colossians 1:15 ff).
So for a material being to ask if miracles are possible is really a ludicrous question. Our senses are the material gift of our Creator that allows us to know in only a limited way just one small part of a reality so far beyond human comprehension that our reactions to it must chiefly be humility, wonder, and wordship.
It’s this truth that is the motivation for this website and the chief reason we don’t get into the debate on how or how long ago God created the material world. For more that forty years I argued and debated and debated and argued—mostly with other Christians—about what the Genesis account of creation was telling us about the scientific manner of God’s creation work. I was convinced that the proud humanist who denies the existence of a Creator but is nonetheless awestruck by the cosmos will eventuallybe led, as Paul tells us in Romans 1, into idolatry—to worshiping the creation instead of the Creator (Romans 1:19-23). 
What I didn’t see for decades, however, is that when Christians claim that we know how and how long ago our Creator did it, we too are a long way from humility and can easily fall into a sort of “righteous idolatry” of the material world. I feel that too quickly we call the Darwian scientist off base when he makes proud pronouncements about how the material world came to be and are too slow to confess that even so-called creation scientists make pronouncements that may be a far cry from the truth—truth that no created being may ever be able to grasp.
Frankly, I believe if anyone, Christian or non-Christian, ever claims he knows anything more than an inkling about God’s creation miracle, he ends by adding speculation to ignorance and calling it knowledge. For that reason I’m not much interested anymore in the “Great Creation Debate.” Always fresh in my mind are the often logical pronouncements of Job’s counselors (and Job himself) that were blown away in a whirlwind followed by the appearance of God who shushed them all not with theology, mathematics, physics, geology, botany, or zoology (responding to their “words without knowledge”) but by showing the patriarch “things too wonderful for [him] to know” (Job 38-42).
I find it to be a lot safer—and more fulfilling—to be content to merely celebrate the miracle and wonder of His Creation and follow William Blake’s advice:
To see a world in a grain of sand
And a heaven in a wild flower
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand
And eternity in an hour.
December 30th, 2009 at 3:43 pm
Dean, your philosophy on merely celebrating the miracle and wonder of God’s creation without getting into the “words without knowledge” makes good sense and I think I will follow your lead there. Too often, I tend to get into the “fray” of debate but you are right, there really isn’t any humility displayed by a “know-it-all” attitude especially coming from a Christian. I guess I just get my nerves on edge whenever I hear someone leave God out of the mix. I doubt that it disturbs God at all. At my age, I don’t need the debate anyway. Thanks for this post.
Bob
December 30th, 2009 at 4:53 pm
What blows me away is that the Darwinians are so matter-of-fact about evolution. For unconscious, undirected evolution to have accomplished all the wonders they are exposed to day after day, they should at least capitalize the word! The natural world is the closest thing to deity that they will ever know–at least until the Judgment–apart from the Creator in His grace revealing himself to them and their not turning away. As Paul put it, they will eventually worship either the Creator or the creation.
December 31st, 2009 at 4:42 pm
I’m not a scientist, but based on my own reading and evaluation and guess, I accept the evidence for evolution as overwhelming and for all practical purposes proven. Though when anyone posits naturalism and thinks all can be explained in scientific ways, then we have an example of worship of the creature rather than the Creator. That’s the only battle I’m interested in with reference to origins.
Love your thoughts on material being the miracle, Dean. What an amazing God we have!
A Blessed New Year to you and yours!!!
December 31st, 2009 at 5:09 pm
Maybe a key in what I said about evolution is that “I ACCEPT.” And I state it from my point of view, limited too and dependent on others. I do think it just as sound as those on the other side in the debate between Christians on origins. But I am tired of it too, and I really want to concentrate on helping those steeped in naturalism, as well as encouraging Christians, especially younger ones, that faith and science are not incompatible.
January 1st, 2010 at 12:05 pm
Dean, I am pleased to read that you too are offended at the matter of fact attitude of “Darwinians”.
It used to be that I could enjoy the many nature shows that are on TV. But they are always spoiled by the comments about evolution. As if their word is the last word on the subject.
Like Bob, I am tired of arguing my creationist beliefs.
But I am still offended at the evolutionist arogance. I haven’t yet learned how not to be.
Steve
January 1st, 2010 at 2:17 pm
I love the message of this entry. It seems to me I remember being a child and being entranced by the miracle of the “natural world.” And now, as I strive to come to Him as a child, (Mark 10:15) I have the bonus of experiencing that wonder once again.
I also get annoyed that it is now impossible to watch a nature show without have evolution shoved down my throat. Mostly, because we used to watch shows like that as a family. On the brighter side, my children more often than not dispute the commentator before hubby and I can say it.
I no longer argue it, but if someone persists – I just tell them it’s a matter of faith, I faith in God, they have faith in science and neither one of us can prove he or she is right. If they reply, “I can prove it” I ask, “What existed before the Big Bang and where did it come from?” Generally, they agree to disagree at that point. I’m not interested in convincing them that I’m right; it’s a moot debate with an unbeliever.