FROM THE TREE TO THE CROSS

What are we? Why are we here? Where did we come from, where are we going, and what will be the point of it all in the end? These are the questions that every human ponders at some point in their lives. While we may never definitively know the answers, it is worth pointing out that the world seems designed so that it is equally impossible to prove the existence of God or to prove that everything exists because of fractals and chance—like a painting that suddenly appeared out of nowhere, transforming beauty from chaos. However, the fact that neither can be proven suggests that a Designer intentionally made it that way.
This brings us to the most debated topics in human history: Is there a God, and which religion or denomination is the correct one? Why doesn’t He reveal Himself and end all the suffering and wars that spur from religious differences?
In our modern age, our youth see faith as a crutch of superstition from the past—a pointless, generational system of confusion that only creates violence and paranoia. They lean on technology and science to be the new path, hoping to bring all of mankind into a state of single-minded unity and brotherhood that will solve our problems and usher in a new world without hunger, sickness, or violence. But this has already been done long ago; it is a moment referred to in the Bible as the Tower of Babel.
The truth is that we can evolve and shape ourselves into super-intelligent beings capable of harnessing our environment for good and controlling our destiny, but at what cost? What value is there in gaining the whole world as if it were a trophy to be displayed and admired in a case, if the cost is that we lose our very own souls? When we die and the earth dies with us, there will be nothing more to remember or cherish.
In the modern argument between the atheist and the believer, the believer wins in the end. If the atheist is right, he wins for a lifetime but loses eternity; but if the believer is right, he might lose a lifetime but he wins an eternity. If a believer is wrong about God and life after death, he will never know it, because he will have ceased to be able to know anything when he dies. But if the atheist is wrong and finds that there is a God, he will know it and regret his choices for all of eternity. The point is simple and the bet is real—I, for one, would not want to play those odds.
For now, life can be confusing and chaotic. It is hard to find the good when all we see is so much evil, but the good is there because God is there. It is up to us to find Him and reflect Him in order to overcome a world of evil. In the end, we all have to decide; there is no such thing as staying on the fence, watching to see how it turns out before we decide.
We are all part of a book called The Lamb’s Book of Life. We do not understand this fully now, but we will one day. I imagine it as though we are moving lines of ink, like the flowing strokes of a Master Calligrapher writing with His quill. He has already written the beginning and the ending—those are unchangeable—but for the rest of the narrative, He has given us a predetermined amount of space and time to let the characters interact and develop a connection.
We are characters that He has allowed to breathe and take on form and personality through free will. He allows us to move through the pages to shape the narrative and add depth to the story, yet He controls the final direction of the plot. In this way, we are free to become the character we choose to be—whether hero or villain—while also being a part of His story (history) that will be recorded for all of eternity.
Just as the Bible is our present form of the recorded history of the war between good and evil, His story will be the Master Book encompassing all of time. The fact that we get to be a part of it is honor enough, but who we decide to become is the only way we can honor Him. Choose wisely what your story is now, because it will be forever a part of His story in the end. Live your life so that when the Master turns the page, instead of seeing the darkness of your chapter, He will see only the light of His Son in your part of the story.