Where Is God?

Splashed with bright white paint right across the side of the garbage truck in large, bold letters, a baffled university student had written, "Where is God?"

Most people wonder about this same question at some time or other. If there is a God, how can we know that he exists and how can we find him?

In some ways God is like an atom. You can't see him with the naked eye but you can see evidence of his presence and power everywhere you look.

For instance, God shows himself to us through creation. As David the psalmist said, "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 end of the world."¹

In My Search for the Ultimate, research scientist Lambert Dolphin Jr. writes, "Confronted every day with the mysteries of space and the atom, I continue to be amazed at the complexity and order of our universe. From the sub-microscopic realm of the atom to the expanding reaches of the galaxies, our universe runs like intricate and well-oiled clockwork according to great physical laws which never change or falter.

The heavens declare
the glory of God.

"Our sun, which is the nearest star, a hundred earth diameters across, is 93 million miles into space. Each day the sun supplies our solar system with heat, power and light at the rate of a million billion, billion horsepower! Yet it is only an average star.

"Our island universe of stars which we call the Milky Way is 100,000 light years across. If we could travel at the speed of light (186,000 miles per second), it would take us 100,000 years to traverse the Milky Way! Yet this is only one of a billion or more such island universes stretched out in every direction from our earth to distances measured in billions of light years."

However, one doesn't need to be a scientist to see and feel the greatness of creation all around us. Vacationing on Kangaroo Island in South Australia, I marveled at the wonders of nature—the grandeur of rolling hills, the brilliance of spring flowers, the majesty of cliffs rising from the sea with the waves crashing rhythmically against them and pounding lonely, deserted beaches.

I watched a sea gull, beautiful and agile, swooping over the waves, tipping its beak into the water to pluck a tasty meal from the sea. I marveled at the grace of a huge pelican, stretching his wings to a span of eight to ten feet as he soared effortlessly above me.

So many marvels to see: a playful porpoise dodging beneath the bow of our boat, gliding with ease through the crystal clear water; a curious fur seal, popping out of the sea in answer to a child's call; a kangaroo bounding across a distant field; and a koala high in a eucalyptus tree. Later, a million stars shone above to dance in chorus with a brilliant full moon and mirror their beauty in a now calm sea.

I have stood breathless at the sight of millions of gallons of water plunging over the Niagara Falls, and speechless at the splendor of the Grand Canyon. I have walked in amazement in the Yosemite Valley where mountains of granite seem to reach up out of nowhere to stab the sky in unparalleled artistic beauty.

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