Evidence

If you watch T.V. shows like the one produced by the B.B.C. where people are always bringing their treasured antiques to be valued you will see some interesting articles; they may be jewellery, pottery or paintings or whatever but no matter how authentic they may look the art dealer is looking for a signature or “marking” placed there by the original artist or craftsman to prove that they are the genuine work of a master. For example the real value of this little vase is that it has “Royal Dolton” written on its base.

Paul writing to the Roman Christians in The New Testament points out in Chapter 1 verse 20 that people “have no excuse for not knowing God “because “They can clearly see....his eternal power and divine nature” (New Living Translation) the equivalent of His “signature” is on everything, although it is sometimes so obvious we don’t even recognise it.  I have touched on this subject before, regarding fruit but we can never give God enough glory for what He has done.

Each morning when I back my car out of the driveway I see this orange tree: When God made the trees He placed His “signature” on them. In this case it is the fact that He programmed the tree to camouflage its fruit by making it the same colour as the leaves so that it will not be obvious to people, birds, and animals until it is ripe, however when it is ripe, and the seeds are hard, the rind of the fruit will turn a bright orange colour to attract the attention of the above mentioned beings. It is for certain that a brainless tree didn’t think up that idea or know how to do it.

God wanted us his children to inherit a world that was full of wonderful things to enjoy. John’s gospel points out how this was done; God spoke all these things into existence by His word and (as incredible as it may seem) the first people to inherit all these wonders did not give Him the love and appreciation that He deserved, but defied Him with the sin of disobedience. (As a matter of interest, have you ever seen similar behaviour in someone’s family?) If so you will have sympathy for Jesus who then had to come and take our punishment by allowing himself to be executed so he could offer forgiveness to those who will now “believe” on Him.

The orange is just one of millions of marvels, but is one we are all familiar with so I want to use it as an example. God knew that we would need vitamin “C” to ward off colds so He designed the orange to be a container of lovely juice full of that vitamin, making it available at the beginning of winter when it is most needed. If the orange was just simply a container of liquid though it would be very messy to eat, he therefore placed hundreds of tiny edible bags in it that are filled with the juice as the orange develops. But that’s not all; in order to make it even more convenient for us to eat in an unmessy way he placed all these little bags of juice into what we call “quarters” which are mouth sized segments covered by an edible membrane so they are easy to handle.

We must not forget though that at creation God told (or programmed) the tree to “reproduce after its kind” so He placed seeds in the “quarters” so that they would be scattered abroad by those eating the fruit. Therefore, in a sense, the lovely tasting fruit is a reward for anyone or anything spreading the seed.

It always excites me to realise how great our God is and how He loves us. Highly qualified scientists in a well equipped laboratory cannot make an orange but a brainless tree, with no resources but the dirt it stands in, can make all the necessary pith, membranes, bags, peel, vitamins, liquid, colour and seed for dozens of oranges every year because God programmed it to do so!

Now I ask you, if He can do that for a tree “That is here to-day and gone tomorrow, how much more will He do for you, oh ye of little faith” if you ask Him and trust Him (that is my paraphrase of Matthew 6:30-34).

Best wishes,   Tom.