WITHOUT EXCUSE

Paul, an apostle, wrote to the church in Rome, “For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.” This becomes very significant to me because it tells of a way to know about the ‘invisible attributes’ of God that are always difficult to conceive. But the invisible becomes visible by looking at the creation with its beauty and power. Paul says this clearly shows his ‘eternal power and divine nature. Divine nature is seen in physical nature.

The 19th century naturalist John Muir who, before visiting California’s Yosemite Valley for the first time in 1868, said of himself, “I was tormented with soul hunger. I was on the world. But was I in it?” Yosemite changed all of that. He was reborn, muscular and agile, leaping from boulder to boulder like a mountain goat, rhapsodizing about the wonders of God, with a “joyous, ringing laugh” (Smithsonian July 2008).

“(God) is clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So we are without excuse.” The Romans, and every generation, including you and I, are without excuse concerning believing in God since the creation of the world of beauty, order, symmetry, strength and balance. Let the ‘joyous, ringing laughter’ begin.

“Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation.” Jesus