Seven Fingers - February 17, 2008

Good snowy, Sunday morning! We are having a bit of a blow here; snow and wind that are quite heavy at times. Is it a full-fledged blizzard or just another passing storm? Only time will tell. This morning the image of the seven-fingered hand came to me again... sorry, it just happens. This image is from the Jim Carrey film, "Bruce Almighty". The scene occurs as Bruce is testing "God" by having the Creator, portrayed by Morgan Freeman, tell how many fingers Bruce is holding up behind his back. When Bruce tries to trick "God" by changing the number at the last moment, "God" responds by adding a couple of extra fingers to Bruce's hand. While we know that God does not give us little magic tricks to shore up our faith, we do sometimes wish that God would add a couple of extra fingers to everyone's hand to make his presence known beyond all doubt. However, would it really be beyond all doubt? We know that unbelief can be very stubborn in mankind. I could see everyone waking up with seven digits on their left hand one morning. Just like the parable of the seeds; some would believe, some would believe for a short time and then fall away, some would believe and then be convinced to not believe by the wisdom of the world, and some would harden their hearts and never believe. You could even imagine a reporter on the networks, with all seven fingers wiggling under the desk, letting everyone know the latest scientific theory for the appearance of the two extra fingers with a completely straight face.

We don't need magic tricks for our faith, we only need to look upon the one our faith is based on, Jesus Christ. We look upon Him by reading the Word of God, found in our Bibles. We look upon Him when we do good works in faith. And we look upon Him when we stop trusting in the world and believe in Jesus. One day we will look upon our Savior with our own eyes, but we don't know when that will happen. Faith, the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

The clouds are breaking up and the sun may shine soon, probably not a blizzard this time. :-)

Bucky

Congratulations to Kosovo today. I see on MSNBC.com that the nation has declared its independence on this day.