Is Anybody Out There?

By Neil Earle

What a great picture!

There was a time when I thought I knew the answer to that question. I’d read great texts such as Isaiah 40 about lift up your eyes to the stars some beautiful night and ask who has created these things?

God, I’d say. And then I’d speculate about how great God was and that if we travelled far enough out there, we’d find him, sort of like the energy being Captain Kirk and the Enterprise crew meet in Star Trek 5.

But no, I have since learned. That can’t be. If God created all these things then he must be greater and more awesome than anything in the creation. Therefore, God must be outside Time and Space as we know it.

A Greek philosopher who was also a Christian made that clear to me when I was 46 years after being a minister for 21 years. But better late than never as they say.

This is important because the right and true starting point for knowing anything worthwhile about life is getting your concept of God straightened out!

That was the journey our church began on almost 30 years ago and we’re still making it. The God of the Bible, the God whom we consider the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ – he is really big, so big that no human concept I had such as getting in a spaceship and finding him is ludicrous.

The Creator’s Greatest Creation

Some people would say that as great as that concept is it is even more astounding that this Great God could inhabit the body of a Jewish girl named Mary and be born in the simple human process we all go through except this baby was born God in the flesh, the One the world calls Jesus of Nazareth.

So, there you have it – two potent Bible teachings provoked by one Time magazine cover – the Creation and the Incarnation. At least we can see that when we look through the eyes of faith.