"DEAR GOD, YOU SURE DON'T ACT LIKE YOU'RE ALIVE" - Day 22

Day 22 – three examples

The difference between Creator and created is incomparable.   –CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA

Suppose you obtained a copy of Tokyo’s telephone directory and selected at random one person. Could you, if you poured all your energy and resources into the project, get to know him (or her)?  I believe you could. Though vastly separated by geography and culture, you could learn about him in a variety of ways. You could dial the listed number and, through an interpreter, talk with him on the telephone. Or you could hire a private detective to find his whereabouts, then travel yourself to Japan and converse with him face-to-face. Even if you found it impossible to meet him in person (for instance, if he tried to hide himself from you), you could still learn about him by interviewing his family, friends, and co-workers. Try as he may to thwart you, determined as he may be to distance you, resourceful as he may become to hinder you, he would be unable to prevent you from gathering a good deal of information about him. If the tables were turned and he wanted to get to know you, he would likewise succeed, whether or not you approved.

Now suppose that during your stay in Tokyo you searched in the newspaper classifieds and selected at random a female dog for sale. Again, I believe you would succeed in finding her if you directed all your energy toward that end. Once found, however, relating to the dog would prove much more difficult than relating to the Japanese man. For one thing, communication would be greatly limited, for no one could translate your thoughts to her or hers to you. She could not tell you, for example, about her past experiences or her present problems. Your intellect would be so superior and hers, in comparison, so inferior that such knowledge would be unattainable. If you tried to solicit pertinent details from her canine friends, you would fare no better. And if the tables were turned and the dog became obsessed about meeting you, she would find herself at an even greater disadvantage. Whether she would get to know you and relate to you would largely be in your court. If you desired that she never meet you, you could make it a virtual certainty that she would not. You would control the situation almost completely.

Now imagine with me a bed of ants in a Tokyo park. As they go about their incessant chores, do you believe they are aware of your arrival in Japan? Could they possibly have any idea that you exist, much less any perception of what you are like? Obviously, they could not. In fact, the only way they could come to know of your existence would be for you to take the initiative and make yourself known. You could do so by having the ants transported to your hotel or by paying a personal visit to their anthill. Either way, the onus would be on you to reveal yourself to them. The same can be said about any knowledge of what you are like. Unless you acted to make your nature and character known—by giving pieces of bread to them, carrying a load for them, or letting them crawl about your skin and explore your massive frame—they would never know anything about you. So great is the inequality between you and them that any awareness of you could only be due to your efforts to make them aware. No relationship could occur unless you willed it and acted to make it happen.

What this reveals to us about God is easy to see. We all know that the distance between a human and an ant is small compared with that between God and us. Yet, in spite of the vastness between, there has always existed in the human consciousness an awareness that He exists. What’s more, His divine attributes can be discerned merely by observing the world He has made. As incredulous as it seems, a twofold truth emerges:

1. Such a gulf does exist between God and us.

2. We—mere plankton in comparison to Him—find ourselves aware of His existence and, to some extent, His nature. 

And from what we have noted in the examples above, these two truths point precisely to one conclusion: God must have wanted it so and acted to make it so. If He did not desire or pursue such a relationship, we would never have known.

The Argument from Supernatural Belief (5 Reasons, Days 37-45) focuses on the overwhelming tendency of men and women to believe in God. It claims that this awareness came at God’s initiative, not ours. It thus allows us a further glimpse into His nature that will be the focus of the daily readings to follow.     

Daily Quotation

Quoted in Mark Water, The New Encyclopedia of Christian Quotations, 410.