A Second Source

As far back as I have memory of reading Scripture, I have memories of pausing when I came to that verse in the first chapter of Romans which is there to take away any excuse we might offer for not knowing about God.  Verse 20 reads, "Ever since the creation of the world His eternal power and divine nature, invisible though they are, have been understood and seen through the things He has made.  So they are without excuse..."  The old chorus learned as a child called "Everybody Ought to Know"  is according to this verse more than true.     

There have been those theologians who speak of the creation as being like a second source of divine inspiration.  They even go so far as to call it a second book, a bigger book, that points us to the Creator and enables us to hear His Word in everything which is around us.  For some this might be a stretch since it seems to deny the written Word as the only way to hear the voice of God, but as we learn to listen and see what cannot be heard and seen, it not only becomes possible, but a reality to be embraced.    

God is not everything, but He is surely in everything.  Everything created bears the imprint of His hand, has holy breath upon it, and has within it a knowing that exceeds our knowing about the way it has been placed in its ordered place in the Creation.  As Paul says in this word to the Romans, holy presence is all around us and it reveals to us the truth about the Creator and how we should live with one another within the created order..