Bible Reading: Acts 17:19-28
In him we live and move and exist. Acts 17:28
A FEW WEEKS AGO you were turning over dirt. But then your mom planted seeds and your little sister watered them and you all watched day by day for them to sprout. Warm spring sunlight coaxed green from the moist earth. And now raindrop beads rest on the leaves in your backyard. The garden promises tomato, zucchini, lettuce, and carrot taste sensations later in the summer.
The amazing point is this: From dirt, water, sun, and seeds comes God’s provision. Daily. In abundance.
You have likely never seen lightning torch your mom’s vegetable garden. It probably doesn’t flood with every rainfall. And most summers the wind doesn’t blow the asparagus into oblivion. God does allow natural disasters to strike sometimes, but he is a God who cares about the earth he created and the creatures who live on it.
Paul once told a group of unbelievers that God “has not left himself without testimony: He has shown kindness by giving you rain from heaven and crops in their seasons; he provides you with plenty of food and fills your hearts with joy” (Acts 14:17, NIV). God promised Noah, “As long as the earth remains, there will be springtime and harvest, cold and heat, winter and summer, day and night” (Genesis 8:22). God provides signs of his love from the lavish ripeness of a garden to the intricate design of the tiniest cell swimming happily in a mud-splat.
Each of us totally depends on the love of the God who made us. Paul said this to another group of non-Christians: “Human hands can’t serve [God’s] needs-for he has no needs. He himself gives life and breath to everything” (Acts 17:25). And Paul told the people who received his letter in Rome that we can see enough about God in nature to convince every human being that God exists-and that he made us and cares for our needs. Paul wrote that even unbelievers “can clearly see [God’s] invisible qualities-his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse whatsoever for not knowing God” (Romans 1:20). Nature is constantly telling us that God’s love is true.
Maybe you never thought of a zucchini or a carrot or a falling star or a snowcapped mountain as proof of God’s love. But that’s what creation cries out. What God made is a huge sign of love.
REFLECT: When you look at the way God has provided a wonderful world for you, do you feel loved?
PRAY: Take some time to express your love to God for the beauty he has put all around you.
