www.because.uk.com

Why Believe:The Awesome

Free Gift

Snippets:Our Plastic

Planet

Hope:There were

Giants

BecauseFebruary 2018 www.because.uk.com

...for anyone who’s ever asked, ‘why?’

The Beauty

Beneath

Our awesome free gift

Snowflakes

Snippets: Our plastic planet

Sometimes what seems like a good idea turns out to be a bad one. Take plastic and what it’s doing to our environment, for example…and, whose planet is it anyway?

Mosquitos

I have a love-hate relationship with mosquitoes – they love me and I hate them. What purpose do they serve? On a recent holiday I discovered that purpose…so what is it?

Digging deeper for resources

Have we found a vital new supply of resources, or are we risking irreversible destruction of the planet? That’s a question taxing scientists globally, as a new frontier in mineral mining advances in the ocean depths.

Page 3

Page 4

Page 6

Page 8

Page 9

Alexey Kljatov quietly posted on his blog and Flickr some highly magnified photographs of little icy wonders: snowflakes. They have since gone viral. Come play in the snow…

Take Your Pick

Cover photo: istockphoto.com

Making the Unseen Seen

Last year, Dulles Airport hosted a microphotography exhibit that focused on cell imagery that was magnified 50,000 times the normal size…

Page 12

There were giants

What about all those lost species and those at the point of extinction? Is everything lost? Is there hope? Maybe. I want to propose an off-the-wall suggestion…

Page 10

The Earth, the source of all our wealth, was around before any human set foot on it. All of its beauty and resources are in fact a magnificent gift. But how does this change things?

Because is an in house publication of Grace Communion International

(UK), 9 the Point, Rockingham Road, Market Harborough, LE16

7QU, UK

TEL: 01858 437 099EMAIL: info@because.uk.com

Please email articles to: info@because.uk.com

Copyright © 2018, Grace Communion International,

registered in England and Wales as Worldwide Church of God.

Company No. 654913. Charity number (E&W): 311098

Scotland: SC040008.All Rights Reserved.

All Scriptures unless otherwise stated are quoted from the Holy Bible, New

International Version.

Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 International Bible Society

Used by permission of Zondervan Bible Publishers

3Photos top to bottom:: istockphoto.com, wikicommons

Near my place of work, a lady often stands outside a supermarket selling The Big Issue.1 My guess

from her accent is that she originally came from Eastern Europe, but that’s all I know about her. This person caught my attention because she looked so unhappy. Plus the fact that so many people walked past her without buying her magazine.

The Big Issue isn’t “my cup of tea” - don’t get me wrong, I really like the concept of providing an income to people who have fallen on hard times. For some reason, I’m not interested in most of its content; the articles seemed to be aimed at an audience that doesn’t include me! But on that day, I resolved to buy the Big Issue from her every week. More than that, I decided that I would always say hello and just say a few words. A few weeks ago, I felt that my actions had really done some good – on seeing me she smiled and tried to say a few words in her faltering English.

I have no idea how old this lady is. I am in my late 40s and I think she is somewhat older than I. However, I am aware that the stresses of life can age you prematurely: she could be younger than me. Why she has fallen on hard times, I have no idea - but does it matter? Whether

her troubles were caused by bad decisions, or by random external events, is something I don’t need to know. All that does matter is that everything I have is due to a great blessing.

The Earth, the source of all my wealth, was around before any human set foot on it. All of its beauty and resources are in fact a magnificent windfall. None of us have done anything to deserve these boundless riches.

Yes, I work hard to earn my wage. But it is only possible to do so because of our planet’s inherent abundance. Interestingly, I only say “our” planet because we live here, not because it belongs to us. Everything we live for, work for – and yes, war for – is due to a free gift.

There is a saying: “there, but for the grace of God, go I”, a reminder that the difference

between riches and poverty can be due to factors outside our control. The lady selling The Big Issue has firmly reminded me of this. Which brings me to a question of philosophy. Is the Earth and all its bounty, just an accident? Or is it the result of a creative act, the action of God?

If it is an accident, then we are sitting on the biggest stroke of luck seen in all of history. If God is behind

The Awesome Free Gift

by Ian Woodley

4 Photo: istockphoto.com

it, then we have received an awesome gift of grace. What’s more, this bounty actually tells us something about this God. The Christian philosopher, Paul of Tarsus, discusses “the living God. He is the one who made heaven and earth, the sea and all that is in them. In generations gone by he allowed all nations to go on in their own ways — not that he left men without evidence of himself. For he has shown kindnesses to you; he has sent you rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, giving you food and happiness to your hearts’ content”.2

As a child, I was always taught that actions speak louder than words. The Earth, as a creative act, would be one fantastic action, far more impressive than any

words! Sometimes, the concept of God is portrayed in a negative light, an idea of backward thinking. But let’s rethink that notion. The world we live on is a beautiful and wonderful place. Any being responsible for such grace is surely worth knowing. After all, he would be responsible for the biggest free gift ever dreamed of.

Notes:

1 The Big Issue magazine launched in 1991 in response to the growing number of rough sleepers on the streets of London, by offering people the opportunity to earn a legitimate income through selling a magazine to the public. https://www.bigissue.com/about/ 2 The Bible, Acts 14:15-16 as translated into English by J B Phillips

In August, a little-known Russian photographer, Alexey Kljatov, quietly posted on his blog and Flickr

some highly magnified photographs of snowflakes.1 They have since gone viral. While people have, of course, been photographing snowflakes for ages, these images captured the internet’s attention to these little icy wonders.

Most of them are hexagonal – clearly, hexagons are common among snowflakes. My favorite has a perfect six-pointed star in the middle.2 Another one of my favorites looks almost like a Tudor rose (which was admittedly five-sided, but still). Then there are triangle ones – including one that almost looks like the Superman symbol.3

What strikes me about them is how designed they look. If they were made of glass and hung in a gallery – or in a chapel window – and you told someone in the audience that each glass-plate was made randomly by an impersonal process, I suspect they would look at you, astonished. Part of them might even be a little

disappointed, or embarrassed – they may have spent ages discussing among themselves what the artist was trying to convey in the star, or the flower.

This is a different expression of a classic theist argument, known as the teleological argument. The universe looks designed – it could have randomly come together, but that seems less likely than that a Designer made it.

Before we let the atheists come and try to ruin our fun, let’s play in the snow a little longer. Snowflakes are tiny, but much of the world is covered in them. Think then, of the billions – nay, trillions – of snowflakes out there, then multiply that by all the billions of years that snow has fallen on the ground. And despite most of them having six or three sides, all of them seem remarkably dissimilar, even unique. If they are designed, the imagination of that Designer, Who can work such astonishingly diverse and beautiful images on such tiny canvasses, is rather impressive. Such an Artist is worthy of our admiration, even worship.

Snowflakesby Matthew James Gray

Photos:Alexey Kljatov 5

Of course, some people will admire these icy miracles and deny there is a God Who made them. The snowflakes derive their shapes from randomized crystallization, hence their uniqueness. It is perhaps a little amusing that in 1908, Chesterton was writing against atheists claiming the uniformity of nature was proof against God’s existence.4

Perhaps another argument against a Designer for snowflakes is superfluity: what is the point of designing these trillions-upon-trillions of tiny snowflakes when they’re so, well, tiny? Why dot them over the most inhospitable of places? Indeed, why make them so cold, and thus part of what makes those places so inhospitable?! It’s like having a gallery in which all the doors are locked.

This would be a good argument, if it did not betray a complete misunderstanding about art. While artists may want to convey a “message” in their art, often that message is primarily for themselves, and they let the audience tag along. I suspect that’s true of Alexey Kljatov himself.

Children will paint on a thousand pieces of paper, without ever being motivated by an “audience”. Now, later they may proudly show one of those paintings to a parent, but this is a subsidiary pleasure. The real pleasure was in the act of painting itself.

God is much the same. He makes snowflakes beautiful because it’s fun, just as children paint because it’s fun. God does not need our approval or our admiration. He may deserve those things, but that’s not the same thing.

So God delights in Alexei capturing a tiny sample of His boundless creativity. But it is the delight of sharing the delight He had in designing those snowflakes in the first place. It is not the insecure delight of having proved His existence.

To reduce the teleological argument to suggesting that God designs everything to make us believe in Him seems ridiculously egocentric of us. Egocentrism is not only the basis of sin, it’s also a remarkable killjoy. It refuses to let us see – and thus share – other people’s joy, and fun, because it makes us assume the only important joy is our own. Meanwhile, a joyful Artist flings out another billion crystalline sculptures, just for the fun and joy of making them, and occasionally let us share in the delight.

Matthew James Gray is a Christian writer and lecturer living in Australia.

The above pictures of snowflakes were all taken by Alexey Kljatov and used without modification under the creative commons license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/).

Notes:

1 http://chaoticmind75.blogspot.ru/2013/08/my-technique-for-snowflakes-shooting.html2 http://www.flickr.com/photos/chaoticmind75/8370539735/3 http://www.flickr.com/photos/chaoticmind75/9516811453/4 http://www.ccel.org/ccel/chesterton/orthodoxy.vii.html

The Problem with Plastic

by James Henderson

Sometimes what seems like a good idea turns out to be a bad one.

Take plastic, for example. Since it was first patented in 1856 in Birmingham, UK, it has revolutionized the world.

It was cheap, flexible, light-weight, durable, water-resistant, and just the answer for the mass production of household utensils, bottles, bags, containers, etc. It’s used in building construction, spacecraft and in hospital equipment such as disposable syringes, heart valves, etc. It’s in cars, trains, and planes. By using plastic covers, farmers are able to grow vegetables all year round. You name it, and probably plastic is in there somewhere. What if we limit the use of plastic only to helpful applications like advances in medical science and food production? Maybe, but how quickly could that happen?

Using plastic materials meant that we could preserve the planet a little longer because we wouldn’t need to use materials such as wood, stone, leather and glass. But look what’s happened now. Plastic degrades so slowly that it’s led to an environmental crisis. No one saw the consequences at the time. If only we had known! It’s been estimated that about five trillion “microplastics”, which are small pieces of plastic less than the size of a human nail clipping, are slowly strangling our oceans, choking the life out of them.

6 Photos top to bottom: wikicommons, istockphoto.com

SNIPPETS: Our Plastic Planet

Over 8 million tons of plastic ends

up in the ocean every year. It takes 450 years

for a plastic bottle to biodegrade. 1 million

are sold every minute.

As the apex predators of the oceans, sharks keep our largest and most important ecosystem healthy. Our

existence, in part, is dependent upon theirs. Remove sharks and that balance is seriously upset.

Ocean Plastic Facts

Nearly 700 marines

species have been reported to either

ingest and/or become entangled by plastic. This includes almost

50% of seabirds.

It's been estimated, on

average, every square kilometre of the world's

oceans has 63,320 micro-plastic particles

floating on the surface. It is estimated

that by 2050 plastic in the oceans will

outweigh fish. Today the plastic weight to

fish weightratio is 1:5

References: Open University & BBC, Oceans poster; http://www.telegraph.co.uk/men/the-filter/five-shocking-facts-scale-plastic-pollution-chokin

g-seas/; http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-42264788;

7

There is, of course, a spiritual analogy. What we think is good for us morally or spiritually might in the end not be. This is why Christians point to Jesus and his words as the best path to take when it comes to how to live our lives and to how we relate to others. Plastic alternatives to what Jesus teaches might seem attractive, but resist them, follow Jesus and avoid a spiritual crisis.

Therefore, as well as being environmentally responsible, let’s be spiritually responsive, and accept Jesus Christ.

James.henderson@gracecom.church

Whose Blue Planet?

by Richard Fowler

Blue Planet 2 hit our screens last November. But have you ever considered the ‘Whose planet?’ question? Well, before we get into that, why has this programme mesmerized millions?

Truly, this is marine magic at its best. But it is not just the sea life that is impressive about this programme. The film crews did 125 shoots, 6,000 hours filming, and took 4 years to make the series.1

The result is probably one of the best explorations of the least explored parts of the surface of our earth. And, as the programmes have shown, when you get under the surface there are simply wonders beyond our imagination.

Let Sir David Attenborough describe it. His interviews are always fascinating; he has seen things that are beyond our availability. So, how would he describe this oceanic enigma?

Asked whether there will always be new things to learn about the underwater world, he says, “What we are discovering, almost always, is that the world is more intricate, more wonderful, and more astonishing than we ever dreamed of.”2 And I guess no one is going to argue with him.

During the interview, he returns to numerous phrases. Notice them: ‘extraordinary’, ‘unbelievable’, ‘beauty,’ ‘intricacy,’ ‘wonder,’ ‘delight,’ ‘amazing.’ It makes you start to wonder where we get this blue-green jewel of a planet from…whose is it really? Birthed from chance, or something else?

Certainly, life seems unique; the privilege of this exclusive planet. It’s hard to imagine life could exist outside of this beautiful cosmic cul-de-sac we call earth – it just seems so improbable. Simply put, our existence and complexity may be totally unique.

But what does this uniqueness say about whose planet it is?

Well, even though their explanations may be different, the words that so many scientists and nature-lovers use, when describing life on earth, seem to point at something else.

Listen to what a wise man once said, “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.”3

Paul wrote this letter to Christians in Rome somewhere around 57 to 58 AD, and it states something very logical. If something is extraordinary, organised and complex, surely it has to come from an origin that is equally, if not more, extraordinary, organised and complex.

Next time we look into the maritime miracles of the deep blue, let’s ask the question, “whose?” As we do, let the God, who created all things through Jesus Christ, speak to you.

Whose planet is it? God’s!

Notes:

1 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-416923702 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/science-environment-41699615/blue-planet-ii-why-sir-david-will-never-tire-of-his-work3 The Bible, Romans 1:20 (NIV)

Photo: istockphoto.com

8 Photo: istockphoto.com

I have a love-hate relationship with mosquitoes – they love me and I hate them. If there’s a room full of

people, I’m the one who ends up one drop of blood less, followed by a painful red welt. Apparently, they are attracted to specific smells/chemicals, 85% of which are genetically programmed.2

I once succumbed to cerebral malaria, caused by a protozoan parasite spread by Anopheles mosquitoes – despite being smothered from head to toe in mosquito repellent, long trousers and a long-sleeved shirt. Would you believe it, they located a tiny space between two toes where I’d missed a bit? On a recent holiday, my husband and I were hiking a trail through a wetland bird sanctuary, and although smothered in repellent and clothing, I was painfully bitten through my jeans as I walked, providing great entertainment for my husband. With this background, perhaps I can be forgiven for asking why God created such irksome creatures. An unknown author once said, “The good Lord didn’t create anything without a purpose, but mosquitoes come close”.

With a life-long interest in plants and pollinators, I have long marvelled at the complexities of plant-insect relationships. Some plant species depend on a single insect species to pollinate them for reproduction. Remove one and the other dies. In fact, whole ecosystems can fail when one species is removed, including mosquitoes.3

That same holiday I discovered a purpose for mosquitoes. We visited a cloud forest orchid garden where we came face-to-face with an orchid pollinated exclusively by a mosquito. Our guide sprayed the plant with water to show how this tiny flower attracted its tiny visitor. Once moistened, a foetid smell of blood and iron was released; so strong we had to step back. Mosquito-pollinated orchids exist elsewhere, too.4

Uncovering various intricacies in the biological world that surrounds us undeniably reveals insights into God’s creative mind. The opening passage cited above is known as Job’s tribute to ‘Mother Nature’. We know this ‘Mother Nature’ as God.

Put your ear to the earth…listen…

Notes:

1 Quoted from the MESSAGE rendition of the Bible: Job 12:7-112 Mosquitoes are attracted by carbon dioxide, lactic acid and other body chemicals, as well as your body heat, and can sense these from 25-35 meters. www.mosquito.org/faq#attracts3 Walker, E. D., M. G. Kaufman, and R. W. Merritt. “An Acute Trophic Cascade among Microorganisms in the Tree Hole Ecosystem following Removal of Omnivorous Mosquito Larvae.” Community Ecology 11.2 (2010): 171-78. Web.4 Thien, Leonard B., and Frederick Utech. “The Mode of Pollination in Habenaria Obtusata (Orchidaceae).” American Journal of Botany 57.9 (1970): 1031-035. Web.

But ask the animals what they think – let them teach you; let the birds tell you what’s going on. Put your ear to the earth – learn the basics. Listen – the fish in the ocean will tell you their stories. Isn’t it clear that they all know and agree that God is sovereign, that he holds all things in his hand – Every living soul, yes, every breathing creature? Isn’t this all just

common sense, as common as the sense of taste?1

Mosquitoesby Irene Tibbenham

9

Digging Deeperfor our Resources

Have we found a vital new supply of resources, or are we risking irreversible destruction of the

planet? That’s a question taxing scientists globally, as a new frontier in mineral mining advances in the ocean depths. Although little more than 5% of the seabed has been explored in detail, advocates believe it to be a rich source of precious metals. These include copper, nickel, cobalt, zinc, and platinum, as well as rare earth metals used in technologies such as memory chips, LEDs and batteries. Of particular interest is tellurium, a critical component of high performance solar panels. This exists in a far more concentrated form than in land-based deposits, with the Pacific Ocean alone estimated to contain 22 times as much as all other known reserves combined.1

As the world’s population grows and more nations industrialise, demand for these limited resources rises inexorably. Could mining the oceans be a way to meet our insatiable appetite to do more and be more productive? Perhaps it could even enable a more sustainable future through supporting renewable energy and other green technologies.

Yet it is not without controversy. Although still in their infancy, the main approaches to harvesting resources from the seabed involve digging into hydrothermic vents, nodules, manganese crusts and sulphide deposits. All of these sustain life to varying degrees, and the concern is that disrupting these ecosystems could cause untold destruction to the environment and species higher up the food chain. Whilst there is some evidence of seabed life forms recovering after natural events such as volcanoes, the consequences of adding manmade disturbance on a much larger scale are unknown. Sadly humans have a tendency to exploit resources for short-term benefit and economic gain with little thought for impacts that may occur much later. From global warming, desertification and pollution to nuclear disasters and waste, uncontrolled consumption has often led to major headaches in the long run. We may not know the full outcome for decades, and even if we could foresee it most of us are probably powerless to do much about it.

But what if there was another type of resource available, one where the supply isn’t limited and the impacts are only positive? What if there was a source, not of temporary physical benefit, but of lasting life, energy, peace and hope?

The good news is that such a resource is readily available. According to the “news headlines” from the biblical Prophet Isaiah, “Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.”2 This is a much more reliable and less risky supply of precious resources than anything we will find by digging here on earth. It’s not a magic wand for our physical needs today, but something much deeper and longer lasting. How do we access it? The Bible goes on to say that if we look to and believe in Jesus, the very Son of God who came into the world as a human, then we will not only come to God but also will have eternal life!3 Jesus himself said that those who come to him will never be hungry or thirsty; rather streams of living water will flow from within them.4 And later the apostle Paul described his experience of this in action, saying he could overcome adversity through Christ who gave him strength.5

So rather than worrying unduly about whether scientists and engineers will find enough sustainable resources on the earth, why not try tapping into the eternal, infinite resources offered to us by God through Jesus Christ?

Notes:

1 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-40248866 & https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_sea_mining2 Isaiah 40:28-31, NIV3 John 3:16; 6:40; 14:64 John 6:35; 7:385 Philippians 4:13

by Simon Williams

10

I had never seen such a large animal jump so high. It rose as if from nowhere and cleared the wire fence,

which must have been at least 6 feet (about 2 metres) or more in height.

It was 1996 and we were travelling at speed along the perimeter of a private conservation area in East Africa, when we came to a sudden stop, startled by a Giant Eland as it leapt effortlessly from behind some bushes by the side of the road. It stood still for a moment to look at us, and we stared back in awe of its elegant beauty.

The Giant Eland (pictured) is the largest species of antelope, and it now appears on lists of endangered mammals. The Eastern Giant Eland is noted typically as “vulnerable” whereas the Western Giant Eland is “critically endangered”, meaning a species which is at an extremely high risk of becoming extinct1. Latest estimates of the Western Giant Eland put their numbers at just a few hundred.

Other “critically endangered” giants are the Black, Java and Sumatran Rhino; the Western Lowland, Eastern Lowland, Mountain and Cross River Gorilla, and the Sumatran Elephant. “Endangered” giants include whales such as the Blue, Fin, Sei and North Atlantic Right; and the Asian, Indian and Sri Lankan Elephant.

Some species have been lucky. Among them is the Giant Panda. This rare black and white bear was downgraded in 2016 to being only “vulnerable”2. Some contribute its relative “come back” to the efforts of the World Wildlife Fund, to the Chinese government and to the international support its conservation efforts have received due to the animal’s cute and cuddly human-baby-like image.

Less successful was, as you probably know, the Dodo. In Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland this huge bird is referred to as being “faintly absurd”. Reputedly, according to early Darwinist evolutionists, it was bound for extinction because it was big, fat, and slow and unlikely to survive in the survival of the fittest stakes. The Dodo, however, remains largely a mystery to modern natural science. The old assumptions have

been abandoned. Was it a fierce fighter, more than capable of defending itself in its own habitat? What is known is that, with the arrival of European ships on the island of Mauritius in the 16th and 17th centuries, came predatory rats and pigs, which threatened not only the Dodo but also the indigenous Giant Tortoise. Also, to the sailors, pirates and settlers, the Dodo was an easy supply of fresh protein. Too easy it would seem, because the last recorded sighting of a live Dodo dates back to 1662. Who was to blame for its extinction? Nature, as in natural selection? God? No, it seems that it was us: homo sapiens.

The amazing David Attenborough has brought the wonder of the world around us into the comfort of

our homes. Perhaps you have sat down to enjoy his documentaries, especially the recent Blue Planet 2 series. At the same time, in stark contrast, we’ve seen programmes and read articles about how our jewel of a planet is being carelessly destroyed by us.

Deforestation, the emission of “greenhouse” gases, toxic waste, and more, are all taking what might be their irreversible toll on the climate and on the environment. The clear and present danger is not just to animals, fish, plants, insects and birds, but also to ourselves. We have polluted land, sea, air and now space.

Governments, such as our own in the UK, seek to deal with these issues, some might say for reasons of power more than of concern. An example is the move to deal

There Were Giantsby James Henderson

Photos: istockphoto.com 11

with worldwide plastic pollution. It’s a real issue, by the way. A few years back my wife and I had the chance to visit Ushuaia, hailed as the southernmost city of the world. It’s on the tip of South America before you get to Cape Horn. We took a boat trip into the Beagle Channel, named after Darwin’s ship, the Beagle. We were horrified to see plastic rubbish floating around some of its islands in what we thought what would have been a pristine, pure, pollution-free environment.

Of course, the move to help starts with us collectively and individually. We know that, even though at times we are lazy about it. It begins with every woman, man and child. Hopefully it’s not too late, but, as we are told regularly, time may be running out. Let’s be responsible and do our bit.

But, does the future solely depend on us? Certainly, we can, and should, make a difference in the immediate term.

But, what about all those lost species and those at the point of extinction? What about the giants and tiny creatures that science has not yet discovered? Is everything lost? Maybe. There’s speculation that if we discover the DNA of an extinct animal, then, given the right conditions, we could bring it to life again. Will the woolly mammoth therefore make a come-back? Or, the T-Rex? Help!

Being someone who loves speculation, I want to propose an off-the-wall suggestion. This is somewhat coloured by that fact that I’m one of those Christians, who, you could say, are becoming an endangered faith-species in some parts of the world. The suggestion is that God loves (his) creation, no matter how it came about or what humanity has done to it and will do to it. And, because of God’s love, there is hope.

Let’s ask a question. Is everyone who has died, and every extinct species, lost to God?

We humans think everything revolves around us and our future, so it is perhaps our natural survival of the fittest thought that we think salvation is all about us. Christians proclaim, “Jesus saves” and typically it means “Jesus saves you and me”. It’s true, according to the Bible, that Jesus died to save us from oblivion after death and to give us eternal life.

But is salvation exclusively about us?

Paul, one of the biblical writers, who in today’s terminology might have been regarded as a theologian or a professor or an academic, described a future time when God would “gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth – in Him”3. What does that mean? Elsewhere Paul wrote that all creation is waiting, as it were, for restoration, a delivery from a kind of bondage under which it has been held captive for millennia4. Are we the ones who have held it captive, enslaved by our greed and carelessness?

To be gathered together in Christ is like a code, if you wish. It means to be brought together in his life. It is all about living, not dying and becoming extinct. Jesus is called the Way, the Truth and the Life.

Does this offer something better ahead for all creation, not just for us humans? How could that ever work? Obviously, I haven’t a clue. I don’t know, but I do have hope — hope that maybe yes, there is something better ahead for everyone and everything, including those giants.

james.henderson@gracecom.church

Notes:1 For information about such definitions see http://wwf.panda.org/about_our_earth/species/about_species/2 See https://www.worldwildlife.org/stories/giant-panda-no-longer-endangered3 The NKJ Bible, Ephesians 1:104 Paul was convinced that everything needed to be set free from bondage and decay, and that the restoration of the natural creation was bound up with our being set free from our evil ways. He was convinced that the God of all creation would have to take ultimate responsibility for seeing that the heavens and the earth and everything in them would be restored. The basis for his conviction was the bodily (creaturely) resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to new life, never to die again. In the meanwhile, human beings, most especially those who know and put their faith in this Creator and Redeemer God, would live now in such a way that demonstrates to some degree God’s original purposes and final plan for a good, life-filled and glorious creation.

Speaking of Life:

Making the Unseen SeenLast year, Dulles Airport hosted a microphotog-

raphy exhibit that focused on cell imagery that was magnified 50,000 times the normal size. These wall-sized images included everything from the indi-vidual hairs that sense movement in the inner ear, to cross-sections of the brain’s movement sensors. The exhibit provided a rare and beautiful glimpse into an unseen world, and it reminded me of an integral part of our daily lives as Christians: faith.

In Hebrews, we’re told that, “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1, KJV). Just like those pictures, faith indicates our response to a reality that isn’t always di-rectly experienced by our five senses. Faith comes by hearing about the reality of God and, by the Spirit, re-sults in a conviction of its truth. Hearing about God’s nature and character as demonstrated in Jesus Christ invites us to place our trust in him and to rely on his promises, even if we haven’t yet seen them all come to fruition. By faith in God and his Word to us, love for him is made visible. We become reminders one to another of the hope we have in God’s ultimate rule and reign that will overcome evil with good, wipe away every tear and make everything right.

As much as we might know that one day every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord, we also know that this day hasn’t arrived just yet. None of us has seen God’s coming kingdom. So, in the meantime, God asks for our faith: faith or trust in his promises, in his goodness, in his justice and in his love for us as his children. It’s by faith that we

obey him, and thus, it’s by faith that we can make the “unseen” kingdom of God, seen.

By trusting God’s promises and putting Christ’s teachings into action through the grace and power of the Holy Spirit, we can become living signs of God’s coming rule and reign here and now – simply by what we do, what we say, and how we love those around us.

I’m Joseph Tkach, Speaking of LIFE.

Speaking of Life in on YouTube and iTunes!

Videos of speaking of life can be accessed at www.youtube.com/user/gracecommunion and podcasts on iTunes at itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/speaking-of-life-audio-podcast/id284051486?mt=2.

Visit our website at www.because.uk.com

Photo: istockphoto.com