“In the beginning God...” Gen 1:1
Steven Hawking, the eminent theoretical physicist and cosmologist, made headlines this week when he said “Heaven is a fairytale for people afraid of the dark.” A bold remark from a man who has been facing the prospect of an early death from ALS for almost 50 years. I’ve long been an admirer of Dr. Hawking. His mind, his writing, and his personal triumph, are brilliant and inspiring, but I’m confounded by his seeming ability to face death and eternity so stoically. I wonder if his stoicism might be his way of coping with a truth that we all eventually come to understand...death is inevitable.
However certain death is, it’s rarely welcome - I mean truly welcome. There are times when - due to suffering, illness, injury or disability - we may accept the inevitability of death, maybe even come to see it as a release, but it’s rarely welcome. Given the choice, wouldn’t most choose life? And if healthy, vibrant, active life were offered, who would choose death?
However, once we’ve embraced death, it’s nearly impossible to allow hope for life; it would just be too painful. We view with pity those that cling to vain hope when we see their end coming. We generally think they would be better off to accept reality and enjoy their remaining days rather than grasp at hopeless cures. This is a sentiment echoed by the apostle Paul when he said “If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.” (1 Corinthians 15:19) He understood that clinging to false hope is a worse fate than accepting cold reality.
Believing in God can be like that. Those who have taken the leap and crossed the line to disbelief don’t want to endure the pain of failed hope, so they reject hope and embrace the inevitability of death. To believe in a God that knows all, created all, loves all, and restores all is simply too inconceivable and too risky.
Would even the most hardened heart say, “I don’t want to be loved. I don’t want joy. I don’t want to engage in an exciting life with the one who loves me most?” Of course not! The truth is they’ve lost hope that life without the fear of death is possible, so to entertain notions of God is akin to believing that a magic pill is going to cure my end-stage cancer. So can we believe the first four words of the bible?
To believe them is to believe the inconceivable. Is there really a God who created everything? Who has a dynamic knowledge of the all that is? Who knows the number of galaxies in the universe, the number of stars in each galaxy the nature of every planet spinning around every star - and is totally focused on ME? wants to be with ME? loves ME?
Our minds strain to conceive such a God.
But to reject God defies logic. Everything in our human experience, everything in the universe, everything in our heart screams that we are created on purpose, for a purpose, with a purpose. Reason demands that where there is a garden there is a gardener, where there is a building there is a builder, where there is order there is one who ordered.
So we’re left with a decision: Do we reject reason, reject hope, reject the longing of our hearts and embrace a chaotic, random, pointless existence? Or do we believe in a God who is more vast, more able, more imminent, more omniscient, more personal, and more loving than we can ever imagine? The choice is ours and, from our limited perspective, there are valid reasons for either.
To believe in God requires risk and courage. It requires us to open ourselves to the eternal, to the majestic, to the most amazing life imaginable. It requires us to relinquish control. It means suffering the ultimate disappointment if God is a lie. So maybe Stephen Hawking is right and Heaven is a fairytale for those afraid of the dark, or maybe he’s wrong and a Godless universe is a place of denial for those afraid of the light.
I choose to follow the desire of my heart. I choose hope. I choose God. If you believe the first four words, the rest is easy.
In the beginning God...
John Monday
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