West Main

I drive my kids to school. They used to attend different locations. One school was about three miles to the west. The other one was one quarter of a mile to the east. Many mornings my daughter was a little slower in getting ready and had a five minutes later start. So I’d drive my son to school first and then swing back by the house to get her. When we first started this routine, she thought it was so cool and funny to go stand at the end of our driveway when I drove back home. As soon as my car came into sight, she’d jump and wave and smile that polar cap melting smile of hers and start waving her thumb. I would pull up and say, “need a lift?” She thought it was so funny for me to pick her up this way! She was so excited. Many mornings we laughed all the way to her school.   I can picture the last day doing that like it was this morning. As I drove up, there she was at the end of the driveway, all toothless smiles and waves and hitching thumbs. When I rolled the window down and asked if she “needed a lift,” she threw her little head back and cracked up. Then with full eagerness, she jumped in and kissed me. I can’t think of a better way to start a day!!

What struck me about all of that was the fervor and energy she always put into this silly routine. She acted it out each day as if it was the first time! She never lost any passion for it. It didn’t become old hat. She didn’t find it boring or the least bit goofy. There was no apathy. In her mind, she was a beautiful hitchhiker being picked up by her daddy! (I imagine though that I looked a little more like a Prince and my yellow Aveo looked more like a horse drawn golden carriage. :) She still loves it! And because of that, I do too! It is truly beautiful when you think about it.

Why don’t we act this same way in our relationship with our savior? Do you remember when it all began? Do you remember your salvation? Do you remember the feeling after being baptized? I do! I was SO excited! I smiled, sang, danced and was full of joy! There was nothing less than 100%.

So what happened? Why is it that now, oftentimes we are dull, passionless, and generally apathetic when we approach the Lord? I have a theory. Want to hear it? Here it is: LIFE HAPPENED. Many things cause us to lose fervor: sickness, death, financial pressures, jobs, relationships, etc. At times it is not easy to feel that excited anymore.

But the truth is this: We should still be as excited today as we were in the beginning! In all truth, maybe even more excited! NOTHING has changed! Jesus still died for our sins, He still loves us in spite of ourselves, and He still meets us every morning, right where we are with our thumbs up, waiting for Him ... never failing to show up!

I think of the verse in Revelation 2:4 that says, “But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first.” Jesus was reminding the church in Ephesus that they may still have the right motions, but they had lost the right emotions! He was calling them back to the days when their love for Jesus was an all-consuming passion!

May we all be reminded of the same thing today. May we all learn to fall in love with Jesus again!

While many authors have marveled at the uniqueness of Earth and its fitness for human habitation, some think that we just happened to win the jackpot. Others claim that we have simply adapted to an accidental environment. They worship at the altar of chance.

As you know by now, these writings propose that the Earth was prepared for us through astonishing designs. This issue is a continuation of that insistence. Our last writing held up plant leaves, and their storage of solar energy, as an example of how man’s vital need for energy has been satisfied. Much more needs to be said.

Geology has given us evidence of times in the Earth’s history when vegetation has been much more lush than it is today. Giant petrified tree trunks can be found in now desert areas. The imprint of fern leaves can been seen in coal. Warm and wet tropical periods in the past seem to have once been the norm in areas where more moderate climates prevail today.

Dense vegetation thrives in tropical climates. We can see samples of this in the few remaining rain forests. It now appears that many of these special areas are being taken over by man for other purposes. Many voices lament their impending loss.

The abundance of fossil fuel buried in the Earth today also verifies the existence of once-heavy vegetation that allows us to now be awash in fossil energy fuels. In the United States, where we were once very dependent on foreign oil, we now boast less dependence due to new recovery methods. The supply has always been there. The technology is now in hand to exploit this great Gift from God. Our children may bear the brunt of our eagerness to use this gift.

Many a school child has wondered why the dinosaurs are now gone. Why were they so big, and why do we only see smaller versions of them today? And why are they not still with us? An explanation for their size is that they had a lot to eat. That works for us too. Although many theories have been offered for their extinction, it seems likely that they would starve to death today.

Life science people now think they are in arm’s reach of recovering enough pieces of DNA from some of these extinct giants to nurture successor offspring through cloning and surrogate carriage in the bodies of their smaller relatives today. Objectors say we should not because we could not afford to duplicate the environment they would need.

However, our interest here is that past abundant vegetation has been handed down to us as a fuel supply that we are treating as inexhaustible. Even the fatty bodies of dinosaurs were likely a part of the fossil mix. Exxon once aired a comic advertisement that pictured a dinosaur stepping into the gas tank of a car.

All of this should cause us to bow in reverence as we come to recognize the hand of our provident Creator, who prepared Earth for needy inhabitants.