The Big Picture
And we mean big!
"Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?" — Paul Gauguin, 1897
The title of this painting asks the questions humans around the world have grappled with for thousands of years. Oddly enough, those questions were answered well before Gauguin asked them on his painting. Jesus Christ explained it, and provided evidence to verify that he was the best one to answer those questions. But we have a record of those answers, boiled down to a couple of paragraphs, in what was put to people in Athens by a follower of Christ named Paul.
"The God who made the world and all things in it, since he is Lord of heaven and earth, doesn’t dwell in hand-made temples; nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all life and breath in every respect; and he made from one blood every nation of people to inhabit the whole earth, having determined the times and the boundaries of their habitation, that they would seek the Lord, if perhaps they might reach out for him and find him, though he isn’t far from each one of us; for 'in him we live and move and exist', just as some of your own poets have said, ‘For we also are his offspring.’
"So, being the offspring of God, we shouldn’t think that Godhood is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and thought of man. Therefore, having overlooked the times of ignorance, God now commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness through a man whom he has appointed, having given proof to all by raising him from the dead."
Acts 17:24-31
These words were spoken nearly 2000 years ago, and they are still vital for us to understand today, for they address those big questions. At some point in your life you may ask yourself, “Well, how did I get here?” Well, God tells us in the scriptures, like the passage quoted above. Just as a mother or father tells their child how they got here — because the child has no way of knowing that herself — so also God tells us how we came to be here on this planet. He also tells us why: so that we would seek him and come to know him.
Since that’s why you and I were created, we’ll never experience true and full personal fulfilment until we come to know the One who made us: God our Creator. Jesus came to earth to make this possible. He said, “I have come that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” If you’d like to talk about this, and about your relationship with God, contact us. We’d love to help.