Abra-ka-pocus!

Daniel 2:28a - "However, there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries . . . "

 

image: www.juice.beelop.com

Amazingly detailed - poking up through the rock was a strange little creature that had these weird eyes attached to the end of slender stalks. Spidery legs splayed out perfectly on the top of the fossilized stone and ridges that almost shined with polish made up the ribbed exoskeleton of the tiny trilobite.

It simply takes my breath away that in the palm of my hand I could hold a long-dead creature that once roamed the sea floor millions of years in the past. My head can't even wrap itself around that many years! But I can sure see the little monster in clear detail, painstakingly chiseled away from the rock that surrounded its tiny little body.


Right now, at the Florida Museum of Natural History in Gainesville, there stands towering over each visitor, a beauty named Sue - the largest complete skeleton of a T-Rex ever discovered. Her story didn't end when she perished back in the Cretaceous period. No, believe it or not her story was just beginning then - later sold on E-Bay, she would rock the world with her perfect preservation AND become the only T-Rex skeleton ever to be sold on "America's Largest Garage Sale" [my nickname of E-Bay]. To date, she grossed the most amount of dollars in her sale. But none of that is what fascinates me about her - I just stand gobsmacked at her bone structure, her height, and her amazing age. She is a complete mystery. There are lots of hypotheses about her lifestyle, her parenting skills, and what she ate for dinner - but nobody really knows. They can guess until the cows come home - but without traveling back in time and asking her these questions or observing her behavior - the facts will remain ever elusive.

image: www.flmnh.ufl.edu

She's not mentioned by name even one time in the Bible. There are verses about behemoths and the types of animals God instructed Adam to take charge over - but Sue the T-Rex will never appear in a single verse if you flip through The Word of God. Nor will you find mention of the amazingly detailed trilobite.

But there can be no question of their existence. Sue stands boldly and beautifully lit with warm track lighting -  larger than any land life we know of today. She DID at one time walk the earth.

So - where does she fit in Creation?

I've heard people debate Creationism - in fact, Bill Nye got into a rather animated debate with Ken Ham over the issue for 165.3 minutes! How do we answer the questions that arise when asked why Sue isn't in the Bible? Whey didn't God tell us about the trilobites, the T-Rexes, or the Terror Birds?

Let me ask you something - does it matter? I mean, really? Does it REALLY matter that we can't pin point exact chapter and verse and hand it over to people like Bill Nye and say "Aha!, I TOLD you so!" Does the lack of naming these amazing animals in God's Word change the fact that He created them?

No. And while there is mystery surrounding the facts about any number of fossils found on earth today - not knowing every single detail about the long-dead animals doesn't rattle or somehow change history.

When Daniel was lead into the presence of King Nebuchadnezzar he was asked to reveal a mystery so troubling to the king that people were actually dying for failure to come up with answers! Yeah - that's right. They were dying! The king was so worked up over his mysterious dreams that when people couldn't interpret them they were imprisoned and sometimes killed! [At least Bill Nye and Ken Ham didn't duke it out to the death!]

Even through all of that chaos, however - Daniel humbly explained to the king that he didn't have all the answers. In fact, Daniel told 'Ole Nebby that NO human had the answers. That was a bold thing to do under the circumstances! Daniel then explained that he knew one that COULD interpret the dreams the king was having and invited God into the equation. Daniel said: "However, there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries."

image: www.genesispark.com

Ya know what? - Daniel is right, of course. There is a God in heaven Who knows all about Nebby's dreams and Sue and the little evil looking trilobites. In fact, He created all of them.

I don't have to know all the answers right now. People can argue Creationism vs. Evolution until their blue in the face for all I care - I KNOW my Creator! I KNOW beyond any doubt that God created everything! I don't need to know how, really. I may wonder about it from time to time - and then I recognize again that some mysteries will not be revealed to me while I'm on this earth.  .... and I'm totally ok with that. Because I know WHO holds all the answers.

So for now - I'll look up at Sue and my jaw will drop a bit as I stand in perfect wonder at the marvels of God's amazing works.