Here for a Reason

by Keith Gardner

Act 17:24-27 The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.

I was looking at my thumb drive the other day. You know what I’m talking about; thumb drives, jump drives, flash drives; they come with different names, but all serve the same function; to hold computer data in a transportable fashion. They are very useful; getting smaller; come encrypted for security; or not. They look quite simple. They are definitely easy to use.

Can you imagine taking all the components of a thumb drive, placing them into a room, unassembled, even touching each other if you like, and expecting them to assemble themselves into a workable item? Give the parts a billion years, ten billion, even one hundred billion years; can you, in your wildest imagination, ever imagine them assembling themselves into a working thumb drive. I cannot, and I doubt you can either. Given all the advantage we have given these parts. We have given them all they need to assemble themselves. We have given them a safe and secure place to interact, and we have given them all the time they might need. In spite of all these advantages, we do not, in any reasonable manner, ever expect the pieces to assemble themselves into something that works. In fact, our real expectation is that these parts, left alone and undisturbed, will begin to decay, and given even a moderate amount of time, these pieces will deteriorate to such a point that they are not useful to anyone.

If this is the case for a moderately simple item such as a thumb drive, how could we ever expect, that something as complex and as diverse as the life we find here on this one planet, the planet earth, to have assembled itself. It is imperative that we not allow ourselves to be duped into believing that we have come from nothing, and out of nothing developed in the uniqueness and wonderment we call life. Look around you. Everyone you see is unique; different in appearance, in thought, in emotions and temperament. We all carry the same DNA, the same lifeblood, the same hope to belong and to be loved; nevertheless, we are so different. The Psalmist tells us that we are fearfully and wonderfully made; knitted together by the hand of God. Created for a reason, ready to be fitted into the purpose of our creator. I find my hope in fulfilling that purpose, I find a great deal of comfort and reassurance in knowing that my reason for being here is greater that my own simple comforts and selfish desires. It gives me great joy to discover the One who gives my life purpose and meaning.