I believe in God. But I have learned that God will not bail me out of my mess. Instead, He uses my mess to make me and my life better.
The universe is a chaotic place, ever changing with stars exploding into nothingness every minute and new stars (novae) being formed by the millions every moment. And out of the debris and dust of the dead stars, God has fashioned out a paradise called we have called Earth. Not by magic but by the process He has ordained since the first Big Bang.
Earth is about a third as old or as young as the universe – 4.5 billion years vs. 14 billion years. In the unfolding of time, Earth has become a paradise which has shown us a glimpse of the beauty and the goodness of God.
But God is not an inanimate principle that rules the universe like the principles of mathematics and physics. God is a person who cares and loves us in a deep and intimate way. That is why we can “feel His caring hands” in the dawning of each day or “see His sublime face” in the stars that twinkle at night or “hear His lovely voice” in the rush of the wind.
Life is a mystery and it is difficult to truly understand why we even exist. And to make it even more mysterious, this God has revealed Himself to us. And an even deeper mystery is that this God has chosen to become one of us to reveal Himself in an even deeper and more intimate manner. God became man.
This is too difficult for many to believe today. We keep on celebrating Christmas and yet many would remove the ‘Christ’- the God who became man – from the festivities. For all his genius and sensibility, men can sometimes be irrational, absurd and obdurate. But like the beautiful cosmos and the paradise it has spawned on earth, I believe God will fashion out something good and beautiful out of our pigheadedness.