When the James Webb telescope started sending photos back to earth, scientists and laymen alike were astonished by some of the beauty and magnificence of what they were seeing in outer space.  Things previously unobservable and unseen by human eyes were suddenly coming into focus with an unimaginable clarity and indescribable beauty.

It is just one more example of the adage, “God paints in places we’ll never see.”  This cuts against the increasingly common view illustrated by the question sometimes raised in basic philosophy courses.  It goes something like this: “If a tree falls in the forest and no one is there to hear it.  Is there any sound?”  This could only be asked with a straight face by a society that has become deeply enamored and captivated by subjectivism.  In this view, almost all of reality is believed to be contained within (and even generated by) the conscious awareness of the individual.  It is assumed that if I am not experiencing or aware of something, it does not really matter or perhaps does not even exist.  Only my direct experience of something makes it real or meaningful.

Getting back to examples closer to home, there are light spectrums (like infrared and ultraviolet) that humans cannot see unaided, and yet when they are revealed with the help of modern technology, they prove to harbor incredible symmetry and beauty.  There are patterns on flowers, for example, that bees are designed to see and be attracted to that are invisible to us.

There are magnificent creatures and plants and microscopic organisms and formations that until very recently were wholly unknown to us.  And there are very likely many more we know nothing about.  Astonishingly, we sometimes hear the claim that this proves God does not exist since they appear to have no purpose in terms of the betterment of human life.

The assumption here is that we are the absolute center of God’s purposes and plans.  Biblically speaking, this is patently false.  God exists for His own sake and glory.  He delights in things we will (and perhaps, should) never have access to or understand in this life.  If this were not the case, then I would think He was a very small God indeed, likely a god of our own creation and imaginative design.

To the utter contrary, the size and grandeur of the universe, alongside the gloriously hidden aspects of creation’s intricate beauty and design, point very obviously to the unfathomable majesty, glory, creativity, and power of the God that we know and serve.  He is no provincial God.  He is the Creator and Lord of all!  And He makes gorgeous things for no other reason than to lovingly display and reflect the majestic magnificence of His unrivaled, inescapable, indescribable beauty.

The only logical response is to worship in utter amazement and humble thanksgiving for the glorious grace of this gratuitous demonstration of creativity, beauty, and brilliance.  May we therefore stand in astonished awe and overwhelmed wonder before this incomparable Master Craftsman and unsurpassed and unsurpassable artistic Genius, our Creator, our Lord, our Savior, and our God.