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by Parker J. Cole

My twin and I celebrate our birthday today. As I reflect on being blessed to see another year, my thoughts are centered on my existence and how, despite everything, God has created me for His purpose. He did it because He loves me. So below are my thoughts on creation and godly love.

Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 

Allen Arnold, an author, and speaker came onto my show a year or so ago. On the show, he stated, “God could have introduced Himself in any way to us. As a teacher, judge, or disciplinarian. The way we are introduced to God in the Bible is as Creator.” 

Psalms 8: 3 When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained: 

The known universe never ceases to amaze me. The more we probe, the more we discover. For example, dark matter is thought to be what space is made of. The way I understand it, solar systems, galaxies, and what-have-you are in a sea of dark matter. Perhaps the black holes are massive sinkholes in this cosmic ocean but not so powerful as to destroy the fabric of the universe.  

That could be the most far-fetched thing of course. I’m sure someone will say, “Parker, that’s idiotic.”  

Maybe, but when has God ever had to answer to us for things to make sense? 

Pslams 139:14 

I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well. 

Looking inward, at ourselves, we discover an information debt. On Netflix, there’s a documentary called ‘Babies’. The show follows several babies through their first year of life. There are many fascinating things about babies the show highlights. The one that struck me the most is how children learn language. Within the first year, babies must learn to speak and understand what words mean. Raising bi-lingual children is even more fascinating. They have to learn two separate languages and know, for example, that ‘casa’ and ‘house’ are the same thing.  

As I watched the show, I was humbled by the fact that God’s creativity is not limited to just artistic expression. Creativity is logic, engineering, programming, and complicated systems stacked on complicated systems.  

Galatians 3: 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. 

In this simple verse is the whole totality of identity politics. ‘Neither Jew nor Greek’ relates to ethnicity and culture; ‘bond nor free’ relates to social and economic status; ‘neither male nor female’ relates to gender. We are created to be more than how humanity divides and tries to put us in boxes. We are multifaceted gems with indescribable depths that we ourselves have no idea how far they go.

Psalms 8:4 What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? 

God sees us as individuals that He created for us to worship Him. Make no mistake – God does not need us to exist. I remember reading a book by David Eddings called The Diamond Throne. In it, the author postulates that gods need worship in order to exist. In his book, gods fall into categories of ‘good’ and ‘evil’ as ‘worship’ is the lifeblood of the gods’ power. *spoiler alert* The protagonist, at the end of the book killed an evil god. This caused all the other gods to freak out because—gasp!—a god had been killed. 

Rrrriiiiggghhhhtttt. 

In Job 38, after all that hollering and complaining, God asks this: “Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding.” 

When we meet God at the beginning of the Bible, He is already there. We meet him as Creator. Our existence begins because He created us. Think of a furniture maker. He takes rough hewn wood, sands, carves, chips, cut, block, etc., and eventually creates a table. That table is made with a specific purpose in mind. The maker’s existence is not contingent on the table’s existence. That table exists because the maker created it. The illustration is limited, but I hope it shows my point. Just like the furniture maker was around long before the table, so was God long before us.  

God’s creative power shows us something incredible…He cares about every single thing. He created us for a purpose. Even more heart-stopping is that He would share a portion of His creativity with us. I say a portion because we do not have ALL His creative power. I think that’s because we’re not always responsible with the portion that we do have. And some of the things we can do is amazing. 

An example of this comes from 2 Corinthians 5:17: “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” In Nate Allen’s psychological thriller, Death is not the End, Daddy, the author pens what I think is one of the best tales of redemption. Ever. It’s one of the best Christian stories out there but wrapped in an unconventional package. Can a serial killer who kills children EVER be redeemed? By the grace of God, through the blood of Christ, he can be. In that moment, he becomes something new. 

Or what about this? Romans 8:28 “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” 

How can COVID-19 that has taken the lives of many work toward good? How? How can quarantine and isolation be a good thing? How can losing businesses money, and dead loved ones that I cannot even see buried be a good thing? How? Explain that to me, Parker! I’ll wait! 

YouVersion, the Bible app, sent out this email on April 15th: “During the past six weeks we’ve witnessed God moving in amazing ways as we saw the largest engagement increase ever, with more people searching the Bible for hope and peace, sharing Bible verses and Verse Images with others, and engaging in God’s Word with their families through the Bible App for Kids.” 

In a world gone quiet, we are seeking Him. Isaiah 55:6-7 “Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near: Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.” 

In the midst of our suffering, He is there. He has captured our attention. He is saying, “I am the Lord, thy God.” Look up how many times God says, “I am the Lord, thy God.”  

Paul said it well in Romans 8: 38-39: “For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,  Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. 

In closing, I thank God for being the Creator and for allowing me and my twin to be here one more year. So many others aren’t. There’s nothing great about me or fantastic. It’s because He has a purpose for me. For all of us who are still blessed to be here. 

And I think that’s just marvelous.

About the Author:

Parker J. Cole is a writer and radio show host who spends most of her time reading, knitting, writing, cooking, and concocting new ideas for stories. Her first novel, Dark Cherub, won Best of Spring Reading 2013 from eMediaCampaigns. She lives in Michigan with her husband and beloved dog Sarah.

Visit her site at http://www.ParkerJCole.com