IS THERE A COSMIC PRESENCE?

Day 2

Job 10:20-22; 23:1-3; I Corinthian 15:16-19

IS THERE A COSMIC PRESENCE?

We began yesterday with the question whether a cosmic Presence is in the universe, and we ended by saying that Something ought to be there. If there isn't Anything there, then we have no framework of reference, no star to steer our little boat by, and so we are tossed from wave to wave of inane and meaningless existence, with no star, and hence no harbor. We are beginning to see the result of losing God; if we lose God, then we lose the meaning out of life, the bottom drops out of it. For is there is no God to give worth and meaning and goal to life, then we are only animated bubbles that rise to the cosmic surface, glisten in the sunlight for a brief space, and then burst, leaving a nasty wet sport on the surface of things. And it is all over. Or to the change the figure, "Life is a fretful child that must be played with until it falls asleep." If there is no God, we go through "loud days that have no meaning and no end," a weary round of nothingness.
We now know that, if we lose our Sky, we shall soon lose our earth. An artist said of his nature paintings, "I can get the picture right if I get my sky right." If you can get hold of God, or God get hold of you, then the Sky is right and everything falls into its place, the whole thing meaningful.
Someone has said, "Man has never been the same since God died. He has taken it very hard." He has. For life has become hard, since the Sky has turned to brass. "I sometimes wish that God were back," said a wistful soul.
A modern man of insight reported a dream: "I thought," said this friend, " that I saw you standing on a hilltop, and we, a great host of us, were crowding around eagerly waiting for what you might say. We could see your lips framing the word, but no sound came....We tried to help you by calling out the word your lips were shaping; but we were also dumb! And that word was...." Was it God?

Prayer

O God, if there be a God, I still have to say that, help me to get this matter clear. For my Sky is overcast. In the words of the Brittany sailors: "Our boats are so small and Thy seas are so great." I need a star to steer by. Let the clouds open and let me see, really see. Amen.