The Sign of God

The Sign of God

1991 3 March 8 The Sign of God (344) It was the seventh of September, 1982, when I was standing in front of a tree in a hilly region of Africa. I had never before seen such a tree. It seemed to be a sign straight from God, so strange and wonderful did it appear to me. Its delicate flowers, its chiseled fruit, its geometrically designed leaves – all of these seemed to call out that they had not come into being by themselves, but had been made by some ineffable Creator.

Every tree in this world is, in truth, an example of God’s artistry. But since I had come across this kind of tree for the first time, I felt all the more inspired by it. On seeing this strange and beautiful African tree, I spontaneously exclaimed, “It seems that all the things in this world bear the stamp, ‘Made by God’, but then God, having made all these things, hid himself away from mortal sight. People must, therefore, recognize their Maker through His Creation. It is the sight of God’s Creation which enables people to discover the presence of God in this world.

An experienced engineering expert can tell at first glance whether a machine has been made in the Soviet Union, the U.S.A., Japan or Britain, because of special features in its design and performance. It does not, however, take an expert to see the uniqueness of design and performance of all those innumerable natural ‘machines’ which perform their duty in our world with such perfect regularity. These machines do not, of course carry labels showing their place of manufacture, but the exceptional qualities of their design and their distinctive performance are, in themselves, a clear indication who their Maker was.

None of nature’s phenomena carry labels stating explicitly who their Maker was, but in a more subtle, meaningful way, they all bear His divine stamp. If one is sufficiently discerning to go beneath the surface to the underlying reality, one will inevitably exclaim, “Undoubtedly, this has been made by God! No one else could have produced such marvels of perfection!”