Without Excuse

I have been spending a little time this morning catching up on the Mondays with Mounce blog.  A fellow teacher introduced me to the blog at the end of the school year with the suggestion that I could use it in my Greek 1 and 2 classes.  I still haven't worked that one out, but I have a lot of reading to do before I dismiss the idea all together.  Anyway, when I left for Ireland I naturally stopped following the blog (limited internet, limited time, and all that).  So this morning I read the past couple of entries, I probably would have "caught up" with the entries, but the one about General Revelation and God's Love reminded me very much of the experience I had about 3 weeks ago in Ireland.

While the team is in Ireland the churches we work with take us sightseeing during our "downtime".  I've seen several beautiful places in Northern Ireland, and the church members joke that I am Miss Northern Ireland Tourism and apologize for taking me places I have already seen.  (Are you kidding me?  I love returning to the sights!  Besides, most of the people on the team have not seen these sights.)  This year, though, the first church we worked with brought us out to a place I had never even heard of, the Marble Arch Caves in County Fermanagh.  For those of you who keep up with politics, Enniskillen where the G8 summit was held just the day before we went to the Marble Arch Caves is in County Fermanagh.  The church we were working with was even in the flight path so we saw many helicopters going to and leaving the G8 summit.

From the moment we began our descent into the cave and the cool air surrounded me, I was struck by the beauty of the place.  And then we were at an underground lake and we had to take boats in order to continue the tour and I knew this was going to be a highlight of my trip.  Everything was so still, so peaceful.  The air was naturally cool (we were in a cave) and I like cool temperatures.  And everywhere we looked there was more beauty.  I was struck at how much beauty was underground and how only God, the Creator of the universe, who is Beauty, could create something so lovely.  It CRIED OUT His praises.  Even in the stillness of the caves, even in the silence, you could almost hear the rocks singing, the stream that flowed bubbled with songs of His glory.  By the time we got to the Underwater City (a place where the water is so still that it reflects so clearly the ceiling above that it looks like there is a city in the water) I was so overwhelmed by the beauty and the majesty of the place that I stood for a while trying to hold back tears. 

God, the Creator of the universe, made all of what we saw and He enjoyed it for centuries before the caves were explored.  The tour guide explained that the early inhabitants knew about the caves but were very superstitious and afraid of the caves.  God created it to glorify Himself.  He enjoys it.  And He loves us so much and desires for us to glorify Him so He has shared its beauty with us.  That humbles me.  We can have an intimate relationship with God and He does share His beauty with us so that we might know Him better.  I am not worthy.

While I was soaking in the beauty all around me, I was reminded of the very passage that Mounce references in his blog (see link above).  In light of all of this I am convinced now even more than ever that we all really are without excuse.  All of creation testifies that there is a Creator God and it is by the hardness of our hearts that we are unable to see it and recognize the True God.

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.  For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.  For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divne nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made.  So they are without excuse. ~ Romans 1:18-20