I’ve generally always considered creation as the greatest evidence of the existence of God. I live in an amazingly beautiful part of the world and, as someone who loves the outdoors, I’ve had many experiences while fishing, hiking, sightseeing, snow skiing, boating and more to witness God’s spectacular handiwork. Personally, I believe creation does directly present irrefutable evidence of the existence of God.
In the last few days I’ve been reflecting on something which I believe may provide an even more compelling evidence of the existence of God. This past weekend I had the opportunity to officiate a wedding (Congrats to Steven and Bridgette!). In preparing for the ceremony, I found myself reflecting on what may possibly be the most compelling evidence of the existence of God: LOVE. I’m not sure I’ve given much consideration to the possibility of an evidence stronger than creation, yet as I’ve been reflecting on the power of love I find myself coming up with more and more support for this new idea. There’s something very profound and powerful in the love which exists between married couples, in family relationships, among friends and in the church body. This love moves us out of our sinful self-centeredness into deeply spiritual and sacrificial giving of our lives to others. This love gives meaning and significance to our lives. Love makes life worth living, and the hard things not quite as hard, and the good things even better.
This morning on Facebook, I saw a posting about a friend from our days of living in Midland, Michigan. She had succumb to cancer at 58 years old and today is the celebration of her life. Immediately, my heart was touched with memories of this couple, their friendship to us, and a sharing of their grief. We moved from Midland in 1985, so it’s been over 26 years since I’ve seen these friends. The point is, the love for these friends is still strong. Where does that kind of love come from? I can’t imagine any scientist could successfully argue, at least to my satisfaction, that this kind of love is an emotion which has evolved from a “big bang” or was passed on to humans from primates, millions of years ago. Those who try to deny the existence of God may try to argue that LOVE has evolved and been created by humans as a way of coping with life and making life a more pleasing experience. The source of this LOVE is a God of love.
From a theological perspective I believe the point can be made that LOVE pre-existed creation. Before the first day of creation, our God of love made a strategic decision to create all that was made. Before God ever said, “Let there be light” (Genesis 1:3), his heart was filled with LOVE. In all of the ways God’s love is displayed and demonstrated in our world today, and all the ways we experience love in our lives, and there are many, all point to the reality of his existence.
“We love because he first loved us.” 1 John 4:19 New International Version
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