Do you need a reason to believe in God?

(an exerpt from Francis Chan's book "Crazy Love")

 

“Did you know that a caterpillar has 228 separate and distinct muscles in its head?  That’s quite a few, for a bug.  The average elm tree has approximately 6 million leaves on it.  And your heart generates enough pressure as it pumps blood throughout your body that it could squirt blood up to 30 feet. (I’ve never tried this, and I don’t recommend it.)

Have you ever through about how diverse and creative God is?  He didn’t have to make hundreds of kinds of bananas, but He did. He didn’t have to put 3,000 different species of trees within one square mile in the Amazon jungle, but He did.  God didn’t have to create so many kinds of laughter.  Think about the different sounds of your friends’ laughter – wheezes, snorts, silent, loud, obnoxious.

How about the way plants defy gravity by drawing water upward from the ground into their stems and veins?  Or did you know that spiders produce three kinds of silk?  When they build their webs, they create sixty feet of silk in one hour, simultaneously producing special oil on their feet that prevents them from sticking to their own web. (Most of us hate spiders, but sixty feet an hour deserves some respect!) Coral plants are so sensitive that they can die if the water temperature varies by even one or two degrees.

Did you know that when you get goose bumps, the hair in your follicles is actually helping you stay warmer by trapping body heat?  Or what about the simple fact that plants take in carbon dioxide (which is harmful to us) and produce oxygen (which we need to survive)?  I’m sure you knew that, but have you ever marveled at it?  And these same poison-swallowing, life-giving plants came from tiny seeds that were placed in the dirt.  Some were watered, some weren’t; but after a few days they poked through the soil and out into the warm sunlight.  

Whatever God’s reason for such diversity, creativity, and sophistication in the universe, on earth, in our own bodies, the point of it all is His glory.  God’s art speaks of Himself, reflecting who He is and what He is like.

“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 display knowledge.  There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard.  Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.” – Psalms 19:1-4

This is why we’re called to worship Him.  His art, His handiwork, and His creation all echo the truth that He is glorious.  There is no other like Him.  He is the King of Kings, the Beginning and the End, the One who was and is and is to come. I know you’ve heard this before, but I don’t want you to miss it.

I sometimes struggle with how to properly respond to God’s magnitude in a world bent on ignoring or merely tolerating Him.  But know this: God will not be tolerated.  He instructs us to worship and fear Him.”

-        Francis Chan, “Crazy Love”