The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…
"Someone To Praise, Someone To Thank"
What if there is no one to praise and thank for the sublime beauty of the hibiscus flowers in the photo above? Lovely as they are, what if they merely exist as the product of a mindless, impersonal, and undesigned universe? What if our capacity for mental, emotional, and physical response to the flowers consists of nothing more than chemical and electrical impulses moving within our brain? What if there is no one to praise, and no one to thank?
We live in times when more people than ever in Western culture believe in such nothingness. They have no one to praise and no one to thank, ignoring and rejecting God's "clearly seen" engineering and artistry (Romans 1:20). Deeply within, every human being knows the living and personal God exists because "God hath showed it unto them" (Romans 1:19). Multitudes nevertheless "oppose themselves" by denying the most obvious reality of their existence (II Timothy 2:25). "In Him we live and move and have our being" (Acts 17:28). The Lord Jesus Christ told us why they do so:
This is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil" (John 3:19).
The problem of unbelief never begins in the mind, but rather in the heart. The Lord Jesus declared that those who reject God's creative and involved reality do so because they know His truth will interfere with aspects of their life that do not correlate with His will. This is tragic not only because eternal condemnation awaits those who reject the Lord Jesus Christ, but also because they have no one to praise and no one to thank for the blessings God bestows even on those who refuse to acknowledge Him (Luke 6:35). Such darkness of heart can only be viewed in terms of the most profound tragedy. Indeed, to possess the capacity to appreciate beauty, but to ignore or deny the Artist who paints in hues such as tint the hibiscus above constitutes immeasurable tragedy. "Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart" (Ephesians 4:18). How sad and dark must be the souls of those who have no one to praise, and no one to thank.
Creation serves as a gallery of art and beauty painted, sculpted, and orchestrated by One whose heart and hand produce "wonders without number" (Job 9:10). I thought of this today while being amazed by hibiscus flowers too beautiful to have simply happened. I thought even more - as I offered praise and thanksgiving to the Artist - that the Lord's palette must surely be infinite in its beauty and variety. We will find our senses forever amazed by new expressions of the art that proceeds from His heart. Yes, we will forever joyously have Someone to praise, and Someone to thank.
"He hath made everything beautiful in His time."
(Ecclesiastes 3:11)
"I will praise Thee forever… I will give thanks unto Thee forever."
(Psalm 52:9; 30:12)
Weekly Memory Verse
This is the confidence that we have in Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He heareth us.
(I John 5:14)
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