hand in hand

Today’s readings: Ezekiel 24:1-26:21, Hebrews 11:1-16, Psalm 110:1-7, Proverbs 27:14

We come to the faith chapter today. The writer of Hebrews doesn’t mince words: without faith it is impossible to please God. But he makes it clear why this is true. How can we please God if we don’t believe in Him? And believing in God takes faith, since we can’t see Him.

The writer of Hebrews then takes us through a Who’s Who of faith. We start with the very beginning. And he says something profound. “By faith we understand…” We can really stop right there and let that sink in. There are many today who have trouble with this concept. But we shouldn’t pretend that this is new. People have struggled with this for centuries. By faith we understand. This gives us a good picture of the relationship of religion and science.

By faith, we understand. If you divorce your understanding from faith, you can’t fully understand. If you separate your faith from understanding, you start believing some crazy things (I’m looking at you, Jim Jones). By faith we understand. Our faith must grow alongside our understanding, neither of them outdistancing the other, or we will end up unbalanced.

And the writer of Hebrews applies this concept right away to something scientific. By faith we understand that God created the universe by His command… and that what we now see did not come from anything that can be seen. Ponder that, in all its complexity. What we see… all of the universe, but also every aspect of our daily lives… comes from what can’t be seen. Just living our life from day to day requires faith, or we find ourselves in a place where we think that this is all there is.

Thank You, God, for helping us grow our faith.