Rewind

A few years ago, I watched a PBS documentary about one of those building implosions where they drop the whole thing into its own footprint. They described the intricate detail and split-second timing of detonations. They showed the implosion. Then, they replayed it in reverse.

That made me wonder what if, we could hit rewind on the projector of life and watch the real thing in reverse — not just the recombining of elements to reshape the physical structure, but the millions of man-hours of planning and labor that went into erecting that building.

We might rewind further and see the myriad predecessors who studied the sciences and created the steal, the concrete, the glass, the welding processes, and the electricity which built and sustained that structure. We could even witness the discovery of those sciences that stretch back to humble beginnings centuries ago, all pointing equally to a single concept — truth.

What if there is one single eloquent truth, which delineates all of science and philosophy? As such, no segment of that truth would ever negate another segment. All those segments would be like a million facets of a perfectly chiseled diamond, so spectacular that you and I can only fully appreciate one or two of those facets in our lifetime.

Our appreciation and understanding of those facets would come from their perfect reflection of our perceived environment — different perceptions than our fellow human beings experience, and reflections which we prematurely label as “true” based on our personal biases? Yet, they all stem from absolute truth.

What if that single, all-encompassing truth came from a far higher intelligence that we cannot fully comprehend — one who spoke a single word 14 billion years ago, culminating in the Big Bang and
setting in motion the very universe we inhabit, including this regenerative closed system we call Earth, not to mention, esoteric concepts like time and space?

Would we see that, according to the initial plan, elements within our closed system were catalyzed via those prehistoric atmospheric conditions and that three million years ago, previously inert elements combined to beget living organisms?

And if we fast-forwarded a few million years to the perfect frame, would we hear the Author of that all-inclusive plan say, “Let us create man in our image that we might have fellowship with him”?

At some point outside the constraints of time and space, would we see that Author take the anthropoids which had evolved from the very dirt they trod and breath life into them — creating spiritual beings with a knowledge of right and wrong, beings with an innate need for relationships, beings with creative minds, beings with humanity like our ancestors?

What if a few thousand years later in our timeframe — yet only a blink in eternity — that Author determined to enter a human body and experience that which His creation experiences in order to initiate an uninhibited relationship with humans by experiencing their physical constraints.

And, what if hundreds of years ahead of that event, that Author sent a Hollywood preview to mankind of the coming drama by saying, “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel (God with us).” Isaiah 7:14 Circa 700B.C.

It is He whom we celebrate this time of year.
Merry Christmas my friends!

Full disclosure
I’m a radical believer in the scientific truths from the most microscopic truths of quarks and muons, to the most macroscopic truths about black holes and special relativity, though I’m not inclined to believe we fully understand those truths yet.

I’m an equally radical believer in creation by a single Author who initiated the very consistency and repeatability of truth, thus providing the foundation for all scientific knowledge, though I’m not inclined to believe we fully understand that Creator yet.

And, yes, I’m a radical believer in the biblical account of the Author of life stepping into our reality in the form of a baby born in a manger — a baby who would be known among other titles as Jesus.

And I believe that even before the big bang, that child, who sang the stars into their orbits, predestined himself to be the singular relational bridge between us and the Author of life.

I hope that this season, among the Christmas dinners, the shiny decorations, the coveted physical gifts, and the cultural distortions of truth, you will not fail to embrace the unequaled fulfillment of that ultimate relationship with the Author of Life.

A meeting of great minds who think alike