When you look up to the sky at night, just when the sun is starting to descend below the horizon, and you see all the gorgeous colors of a sunset… do you ever think about how the sky does that? Is it just a random assortment of sun beams randomly hitting molecules across different atmospheric levels at random angles and hitting our retinas at just the right moment? Okay, so I’m not a scientist, but hang in here with me. You catch my drift – how does that much beauty happen randomly by chance?! And once that sun fully sets, the dark sky is sprinkled millions of illuminated freckles called stars. Stars, which are actually massive accumulations of plasma floating around in space. Like… how cool?! And what about the concepts of oceans and mountains and seeds and animals – how detailed and incredible these things are!

For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities – his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God.

Romans 1:20 NLT

This is so true though! God has made everything so creatively and intricately. You can’t look at creation and not be awestruck at least a little bit. If I really think about nature and how the world works, my mind gets a little blown. It’s such a massive, complex concept to think about things like gravity and the expansiveness of space down to the tiniest little fruit fly. And God made it all by just SPEAKING. He literally just said WORDS and it HAPPENED because that’s how POWERFUL He is! HOW COOL.

Then God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.

Genesis 1:3 NLT

God wants us to know Him! He has made His character known so clearly through His creation. All we have to do is look around us and see what a beautiful and complex world we live in. God wants a relationship with us – but He is ALMIGHTY GOD. He is perfect and He is just. He has allowed us to exercise the free will He gave us. He wants us to choose to surrender and follow Him, He doesn’t want to force us! So, when people are really bent on doing their own thing, He will let us drift away into sin. Our sin separates us from our Holy God. He will always be calling us back to Him and putting His wonder on display through His creation for us to see, but it is our choice to either reject Him or acknowledge His glory and love.

Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn’t worship him as God or even give Him thanks… And instead of worshiping the glorious, ever-living God, they worshiped idols made to look like mere people and birds and animals and reptiles. So God abandoned them to do whatever shameful things their hearts desired. As a result, they did vile and degrading things with each other’s bodies. They traded the truth about God for a lie. So they worshiped and served the things God created instead of the Creator himself, who is worthy of eternal praise! Amen.

Romans 1:21a, 23-25

Oh, how twisted and broken our sinful human nature is! Why on earth would we worship the things God has created rather than God Himself?! I think sometimes we just don’t want to be responsible to God. We don’t want Someone to have authority over our lives and dictate what we can think and say and do. The thing is, God exists whether we want Him to or not. He is the authority over our lives because, well, He created our lives. He loves us so much and wants to redeem us through His Son Jesus, but He’s not going to force us to believe and accept this because He wants us to be able to use our free will.

The thing is – typically, we know that we aren’t doing what God desires. We have this little thing called a conscience that really nags at us sometimes. In the book of Romans, Paul gives some examples of the sinful, unnatural things people were doing despite that little nagging inside that gave them the feeling those things were wrong. He mentions homosexuality, greed, envy, murder, gossiping, breaking promises, and pride just to name a few (Romans 1:26-31). Engaging in these behaviors yourself is one thing – but what if you try to convince someone else that these sins are okay?

They know God’s justice requires that those who do these things deserve to die, yet they do them anyway. Worse yet, they convince others to do them, too.

Romans 1:32 NLT

But if you cause one of these little ones who trusts in me to fall into sin, it would be better for you to be thrown into the sea with a large millstone hung around your neck.

Mark 9:42 NLT

What should we be doing instead? We should be spreading the news of the Gospel to everyone! Rather than indulging in sin and denying our Creator, we need to realize that we are here for a purpose – God’s purpose. He wants us to recognize the desperate need we have for forgiveness and redemption because we can’t achieve those on our own merit! We are so sinful and inclined to do such unnatural, ungodly things. Only God can provide the clarity and cleanliness we need to be right in His eyes.

God promised this Good News long ago through his prophets in the holy Scriptures. The Good News is about his Son. In his earthly life he was born into King David’s family line, and he was shown to be the Son of God when he was raised from the dead by the power of the Holy Spirit. He is Jesus Christ our Lord. Through Christ, God has given us the privilege and authority as apostles to tell Gentiles everywhere what God has done for them, so that they will believe and obey him, bringing glory to his name.

Romans 1:2-5 NLT

For I am not ashamed of this Good News about Christ. It is the power of God at work, saving everyone who believes—the Jew first and also the Gentile. This Good News tells us how God makes us right in his sight. This is accomplished from start to finish by faith. As the Scriptures say, “It is through faith that a righteous person has life.”

Romans 1:16-17 NLT

All we need to do is put our faith in Him, that He has provided redemption for us despite our sins! I encourage you to read Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John to learn about Who Jesus is and what He accomplished on the cross for us. Since yesterday was Good Friday (which signifies the day Jesus was crucified) and tomorrow is Easter Sunday (which signifies the day Jesus rose from the dead), now is the perfect time to do some heart-searching and learn more about our Creator and Redeemer.

In those days when you pray, I will listen. If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me.

Jeremiah 29:12-13 NLT