Seeing the Invisible

For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. Romans 1:20 (New American Standard Bible)

As I write this it is the middle of winter here in Arkansas. Recently as I was riding down the Interstate I noted a hawk hovering high above the leafless trees as it looked for its morning meal. I estimated the bird was around 90 feet above the ground and was astounded that being that high she could catch the movement of something as small as a mouse moving amidst the ground clutter below. Hawks, being believed to be among the smartest of birds, are also renowned for their visual acuity. A hawk’s eye has five times as many photoreceptors as that of humans with special nerves and muscles unknown to other animals. In addition they have an indented fovea (a small indentation on the retina at the back of the eye) which serves to magnify the center of their field of vision. The typical hawk has 20/2 vision as opposed to 20/20 of an average human. This means a hawk can see an object 20 feet away that a human could only see from a distance of 2 feet.*

I was suddenly struck with how amazing just this one facet of nature is and how something this intricate and complex cannot be a random thing formed out of a chaotic mass of chemical confusion. It screams of a Being capable of great power and One who creates with intelligent design. I thought of today’s verse and how, because of what nature testifies around us, at a future day there will be no excuse for people’s rejection of His existence, for nature itself testifies of the reality of God.

This is not only a testimony to those who do not believe but to those of us that do. In all things created there is great encouragement in God’s intelligent and loving design. Even though He is the invisible God the amazing world around us is a living and touchable testimony of Him and His reality among us. While the physical sight of a hawk is astounding there is a greater insight the human heart can attain that makes the sight of a hawk seem fuzzy in comparison. That is the second sight of the reality of God the Father. The evidence is all around us from the intricacy of the hawk’s eye to the rotation of electrons around the nucleus of an atom. Even though the Creator is not seen with the physical eyes of man the evidence around us speaks of His reality. The eyesight of the hawk is clear and clean but spiritual eyesight can see the invisible every time.


(*Courtesy of Dr. Louis Lefebvre, Professor of Biology and Program Director, Minor in Science for Arts, McGill University).

Ken