Jesus said "I am come that they might have life,
and that they might have it more abundantly".
‘All I want is to be happy. As long as I have a home, a family and friends, and enough money to do what I like when I like, life is good. I’m fine.’
But deep down we know these things do not satisfy. We try to shut from our minds everything unpleasant. We don’t want to look too closely at ourselves for fear of what we might find. And so the days and weeks and years of our life drift by with ever increasing speed. Then some tragedy strikes. You lose your job. A close relationship goes wrong. Someone you love dies and your world comes crashing down. ‘Oh God!’ we cry out, but we are not sure if there is a God who hears or cares, and we feel lonely and empty. The happiness we long for vanishes like the morning mist. We the church declare that there is a God and that he does care for you and has a purpose for the whole of life that is slowly and surely being worked out.
Some people say, ‘There isn’t a God because I can’t see him.’ There are many things in everyday life we cannot see, yet we know they are there.
We cannot see the wind. We know it is there because we can see it blowing the washing on the line and the leaves in the trees. We cannot see electricity. We know it is there when we switch on the light. We cannot see air. We know it is there because we couldn’t live for a minute without it. We cannot see love. We know it is there in those who care for us.
We cannot see God. We know he is there because of the wonderful world all around us. It is full of beauty and colour and amazing designs, from the tiniest insect to the vast, unending universe.
Things do not happen by chance. With a book, the words do not fly through the air and happen to land in the right order. Someone has to put it all together to make sense. So a book must have an author: someone to write it. A painting must have an artist: someone to paint it. A building must have an architect: someone to plan it. So too with our world. It did not happen all by chance. Someone planned it, put it together.
This great Designer, Architect, Creator, we call God.
