This series is titled (obviously), what you might miss by taking the freeway through life. The freeway is the easier way, but there is a richness in God’s country just like what you miss by jetting through God’s life in the fast lane.

Ruminations on a fallen world

Everywhere you look while traveling those back roads, evidence of the curse abounds. An apparently pristine forest is overflowing with mosquitoes. And anyone who doesn’t think that mosquitoes are results of the curse (or were horribly disfigured and terribly re-purposed after the curse) must live on the moon. Yet, they are still marvelously designed! A recent article in Answers magazine discussed poisonous snakes, and the amazing design behind them (I’d link to the article, but it’s not unlocked yet). Satan doesn’t have that kind of creativity. So, God must have designed animals, at some point, to kill other animals and people. Which begets the bigger question, did God create man with the intent that he could kill other men? I’ve thought long and hard about that question, but can only answer that God knows what he’s doing. He knows best. After all, He knew enough to create everything! :-)

A corn field is withering from drought. Why does God hold back rain when He knows it will hurt a farmer (or rather a farmer’s bottom line)? Come to think of it, why does God reserve control of the weather to himself? Just imagine how thrilled Al Gore would be to have the universe’s thermostat (or at least earth’s) handed to him! Or how enthusiastic old folks would be if they could have their yard at 85 and let the neighbor kids play in the snow at 30 degrees? But, what would happen if everyone decided they wanted 77 degree weather for a couple of months? chances are, much life on earth would die. See, the air flow depends on temperature differences (By the laws of thermodynamics, heat travels from hot to cold, and thus moves air, which then creates low and high pressure systems, which is how meteorologists predict the weather), and Humans depend on fresh air. If air stopped moving, it would grow stagnant and polluted. It would be like living inside a sealed box–our own carbon-dioxide would kill us.

Ok, you say, scientists know about that, and they wouldn’t let temperatures be the same worldwide. But, wouldn’t it be great to stop global warming with the turn of a dial? Um, no. If you live in the lower Michigan area, you are currently experiencing one of the coldest Julys we’ve had in ages. If scientists turned down the temperature another 5-10 degrees, I would be looking for my coat and snow shovel. Global warming proponents say that the poles are melting. But if that were true, why are we still getting hit with some very strong hurricanes (Katrina) in the past few years? Hurricanes and strong winds are caused by temperature differences between the equator and the poles. If the poles are getting warmer (and the equator is not getting proportionately warmer, which would mean basically unbearable temperatures at sea level), the heat transfer should be slowing down, not speeding up.

After Noah’s flood, if you agree with most scientists (those who believe in Noah’s flood, of course), the earth is coming out of an ice age that happened some few (~4500) thousand years ago. And there’s a good chance that we’re still recovering from that. Have you seen a picture of Greenland recently? Apparently, when the name was given the land was actually green. Now, it’s basically a big sheet of ice. I do feel really bad for the people who live in cities built below sea level (New Orleans?), but think of all the land that’s uninhabitable because of cold and ice! There would more new land gained than old land lost. Antarctica could become the new New World! Pilgrims could sail/fly there and start a new country! We could be free of American oppression! Oops, someone already tried that, which is why we have America. :-) At any rate, I think it’s very fundamentalist and extremist (let’s see, what other names do they call us?) to say that the lay of the land can’t change. After all, isn’t that the new rallying cry of the century, change? Besides, God knows what He’s doing. It’s very presumptuous to claim that humans have changed the climate when we can’t even predict tomorrow’s precipitation correctly.

I’m a big fan of lower emissions–like many environmentalist worried about climate control–but not because of their effect on the earth, because of their effect on humanity. People have died from living too close to a poultry factory farm (another reason to buy PotterVilla Pastured Poultry: they cause no waste problems! Environmentally friendly! Fresh! Local! Tasty!) God has called us to be good stewards of His creation, which is another good reason not to pollute. Creation includes other humans, though. We can’t completely neglect them while being over cautious about trees or endangered hamsters or something.

Another result of the curse: as we traveled along the back road, two young men (quite young, and apparently brothers) were quarreling. Not a fight, yet (at least that I could tell). One of the first examples of the curse the Bible gives us is a story about two young men by the names of Cain and Abel. They had a small argument that turned into a big argument, which turned into an outright war, which ended with one brother dead and the other a murderer. One of the saddest things things in the world today is how families split apart and their members declare war on each other. You only have one family, you should take care of it! I see so many sons estranged from their fathers, who live to regret the trivial arguments that began the separation. The relationship between a father and son can be the most rewarding that a man can ever have (I haven’t spoken of female relationships simply because I’m not a woman. [A Jew would thank God for the fact right now because of the supposed inferiority of that gender, but I’ll just thank Him because that’s how he made me and He knows what He’s doing!]). Particularly the relationship with our Father in heaven, which is the real relationship that Cain was ignoring.

Another highly disregarded relationship is the one between a man and his wife. Not enough value is placed on the other party, and the single party that they both have become. Once divorced, both the man and the woman go through the rest of their lives missing parts of their selves. How different could our society be if we took care of our relationships? With both God and other people? I’m not talking about the whole citizenry of the world (though that would be amazing!!!!), just the citizens of heaven, who should know better! How can the Church be a lamp on a stand, a city on a hill, if we tune our light to the same frequencies the world uses? When we’re supposed to be bright white visible light, why are we on invisible, radio active X ray channels?

The Church needs to wake up, look up and stand tall, instead of groveling in the world’s filth. But back to the disputing brothers. No one taught these guys how to fight. Or at least, how to get on each other’s nerves. It’s been in every boy’s system since the first parents sinned–it’s an inheritance. Of a bad sort. And girls aren’t exempt (I do know that much about them!). It’s an inheritance from the first man, Adam. But there’s another inheritance, from the Last Adam, that we can give to our children, and grand children and great-grand children: Salvation.

Which brings me to my next major subject, multigenerationalism. [For those who are wondering, I transliterated that before I inscripturated it. :-)]

Part 4: A Multi-Generational Dream, coming Wednesday @ 6:30 p.m.!