Looking Up, Looking Down, and Looking Within
If ONLY atheists or anyone would look up, then look down, and then look within!
LOOKING UP: An upward glance around us will awe us as we see the sun, moon, stars, planets, clouds, sunsets, sunrises, majestic mountains, and tall trees with their infinite symmetry. Astronomy classes explain the precise rotations of the heavenly bodies that cannot be off at all. Otherwise, NASA couldn’t put men on the moon and retrieve them to earth.
Many years ago, the psalmist David looked UPWARD beyond the skies to speak to his invisible God about the wonder of His universe. “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands” (Psalm 19:1 NIV).
LOOKING DOWN: Our eyes cannot miss the gorgeous varieties of flowers being visited by beautiful butterflies that were once ugly caterpillars. The flowers may also supply their nectar for hungry bees that are working on making honey for their offspring in hives that have been constructed the same way for centuries. Early in the morning we find the lacey artwork of spiderwebs with the function of trapping breakfast for the tiny artists that wove them so skillfully. The homes of the wasps, hornets, dirt-dabbers, and birds tell of an innate knowledge of building that was not learned in a carpentry class.
Still looking downward, we cannot help but being impressed with the plant and animal kingdoms, the water cycle, and the oxygen cycle, not to mention the wonderful rest cycle that nighttime provides. The water cycle boasts of icicles, rivers, lakes, oceans, and waterfalls. The oxygen cycle displays spring buds, summer foliage, and brilliant fall leaves, exchanging oxygen for carbon dioxide.
The ancient poetry of the book of Job is succinct and awe inspiring in chapters 36 and 37, describing the water cycle:
All mankind has seen it.... He draws up the drops of water, which distill as rain to the streams; the clouds pour down their moisture and abundant showers fall on mankind. Who can understand how he spreads out the clouds, how he thunders from his pavilion? …So that all men [whom] he has made may know his work (Job 36:25a, 27-29; 37:7a, NIV).
Jesus tells us that first century men could predict tomorrow’s weather by their sky’s sunrises and sunsets. Matthew recorded His words like this: “When evening comes, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is read,’ and in the morning, ‘Today it will be stormy, for the sky is red and overcast.’ You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky…” (Matthew 16:2-3a, NIV).
The animals follow migration patterns of their great-great-grandfathers; witness the monarch butterflies which flock to the same Central Highlands locations in Mexico yearly en masse with no GPS to guide them; the previous generation may have all died out already.
LOOKING WITHIN: And what about checking within each of us?
First, there are our amazing bodies, given us in only nine months in our mother’s wombs. At maturity, it is said that we have about twenty-two miles of blood vessels, as well as hearts that work and rest to endure a lifetime. The various systems of our bodies “do their thing” without any coaching from us. A small brain stem is totally in charge, even when we are sleeping.
Next, there is the wonder of the brain. It instructs hand movements that can produce NBA stars on a basketball court or concert pianists with a few octaves or typists clicking away over 100 words per minute! Creativity is a reflection of our Maker; witness novels, paintings, non-fiction books and blogs and articles, endless teaching ideas, chef’s creations, fashion and home designs, etc. etc. Victor Hugo, a free-thinker and deist, told us in Les Miserables that within us is an astounding universe: “There is one spectacle grander than the sea, that is the sky; there is one spectacle grander than the sky, that is the interior of the soul.”1
Unfortunately, when we look within, apart from the tissues and sinews, we see another part of us that is disappointing. It is the invisible part of us that isn’t as pretty as we want it to be. In fact, it can be downright ugly or lonely or isolated at times. Paul detested what he saw within. He laments: “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do” (Romans 7:15ff NIV). Something is broken here, perhaps more broken than we realize. Theologians label our inner being as souls and spirits.
Could it be that God holds up a mirror for us to gaze at what can cure this brokenness and at what a gigantic effort it took to cure it when He allowed [actually planned] for Calvary to happen in the life of His Son? Graphic details of that event have been preserved for every generation near the end of each of the four gospels, telling us of the execution of Jesus outside Jerusalem at a place called Calvary.
One of those gospels outlines what it takes to cure the brokenness. John 3 says that we each must have a second birth to fix us. After this new birth, another look within reveals a new person. The old ways are gone; a new life has come (II Cor. 5:17). This birth is for everyone, the atheist and the “average Joe.”
Not only atheists, but all of us need to look up, look down, and within with worship.
1Literature BETA, accessed 12/08/2021.