Today I was on a bus at 7:00 in the morning. As it drove up the road, I looked out the window and saw the most stunningly beautiful sunrise. The sun was a huge golden ball shining rays of warm light across the heavens, and the clouds were the colour of a pink rose, lined with purple and silver. It took my breath away and filled me with so much awe and wonder at the beauty of the sky that I really wanted to talk about it, and how amazing creation is!

There’s a verse in the Psalms that expresses it perfectly:

The heavens declare the glory of God;
the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
Day after day they pour forth speech;
night after night they reveal knowledge.
They have no speech, they use no words;
no sound is heard from them.
Yet their voice goes out into all the earth,
their words to the ends of the world.

Psalm 19:1-4

I’m going to be totally honest– I personally don’t understand how many people think the world was an accident. That all this life could come from nothing. Look at the sun- if earth was just tipped a few degrees to the right or the left, we would burn to a crisp or freeze to death. But because we are in just the right place, it gives us warmth in the summer, and cool in the winter, so our plants can grow, and so we can have beach days and autumn trees and snow and baby animals. And it is so stunningly beautiful, golden and warm and glowing.

Every day has a unique sunrise with a different mix of yellows, pinks, blues, purples, silvers, golds, greys and whites. The birds serenade in the morning, and each day you can look up into the big blue sky and see shapes in the clouds, or watch as life giving water falls from the sky. The afternoon leads to a purple dusk, then a beautiful sunset where the day says farewell in a blaze of glory. Then the night comes, and there is even a nightlight in the sky, shining its peaceful glow over anyone who can’t sleep. And the stars- if you have ever seen the Milky Way, you know that no words can describe it’s beauty, and the feeling of being so small in this never ending universe, but still feeling so full inside. I can paint on a canvas with a brush, but nothing I could ever dream of compares to a sunset in real life. And yet if you saw my pathetic brushstrokes, you would say “of course someone must have painted it.” And yet when we see the master artist painting with light and clouds and air and sunlight, we think it is an accident!

The fact that all this beauty could be created not with brushes, but with just a few words completely astounds me. What power, glory and majesty, to create the sky and the mountains with just words is completely beyond my mind, and the fact that after all that He still cares for us and for our lives is incredible. And that Jesus, who created the world, came down as a helpless baby so He could take our sins on His shoulders – how amazing! how awesome, and by that I mean the literal meaning of the word– something that fills me with awe. It says in Colossians 1: 15-17 –

The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in Him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created through and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.

As well as the beautiful sky and clouds and stars and trees and mountains that point to Jesus, so do the invisible things. Hope, joy and love, peace, kindness and gratitude- all these beautiful gifts convince me that there is someone who gives them to us. These emotions- you can feel them, in your soul, and you can tell, deep down in your heart, that these are not just chemical reactions or things we have evolved over time to survive or optimise humanity. And speaking of souls, and your spirit- there is no scientific evidence for them, but can we deny that we have them, have something deep inside us that really feels and loves and hopes, something that makes us who we are?

And speaking of things invisible, I learnt something really cool today. In our bodies, we have a molecule called laminin. It’s a protein that literally keeps us intact, like a biological glue that keeps our organs, skin, muscles and bones all together. And here’s the amazing part- under a microscope, laminin looks like a cross. It could be a coincidence, but it could also be a subtle reminder, a quiet signature, from God reminding us that ‘He is before all things, and in Him, all things hold together.‘

Although many people say this world is an accident, I don’t agree. I’m not a scientist, I’m not going to convince you with a carefully worded 10 page long article that tells you exactly why evolution is impossible, although there are definitely papers like that out there. I am not going to give you all the historical evidence why the Bible is the most trusted book in history, although that is fascinating. All I can say is that when I see the smiles of my sisters, when I laugh with my brothers, when I hug my friends, when I see the sky, as I learn about the human body, when I look back on my life- there is no way that we could be an accident. I can’t convince you, only God can do that, but I can tell you to look up to the sky and see for yourself- the heavens declare the glory of God, the skies proclaim the work of His hands, not with words, but with beauty and majesty, pointing to the One who spoke them into being with just a word, revealing knowledge that Jesus truly is Lord.

~Hannah xo