Although my father died eleven years ago, vestiges of his presence remain.
As I stroll through my house and my mom’s house, I can see Dad’s imprints. The sound of his voice has almost faded from my memory, but observable things he left behind keep his memory alive.
On one of my bookcases rests a clock whose cabinet was forged by his hands. Almost every bookcase I own, he assembled. On many of his later projects are stamped the words, “Made by Buddy Wiles.” He constructed my mom’s entire bedroom suit. In my bedroom is a tiny what-not shelf he formed when he was a high schooler in shop class. All these items had a creator. His hands worked diligently—measuring, cutting, and assembling the wood. He sanded the rough spots before varnishing and staining his creation.
When God instructed Moses to lead the Israelites out of Egyptian slavery, we read, Moses protested, “If I go to the people of Israel and tell them, ‘The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,’ they will ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what should I tell them?” God replied to Moses, “I am who I am. Say this to the people of Israel: I am has sent me to you.” (Exodus 3:13, 14 NLT)
Every physical item and every human body has had a creator. The creator of the item may be long gone, but there was one. Thousand-year-old artifacts had a creator. These creators had a beginning and an end.
But with God, the story changes. He is “I Am.” He is what he is and what he will be. He proclaims himself as “The Alpha and the Omega” (Revelation 22:13). He was the beginning, and he will be the end. Nothing preceded him, no force or person created him, and nothing will outlast him.
Believing that someone came from nowhere takes a leap of faith—as does believing many other things the Bible teaches about God. I can’t understand or explain it, but I must believe he was before all things and will remain after all things. He simply was, is, and will be.
Photo by Guillermo Ferla on Unsplash
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