Meditation over a colostomy bag

I was watching something on TV this morning while I was changing a dressing on one of my patients.

This young man was saying that he believed that chemical evolution is the explanation for the universe and life. He said that he does not believe there is a God because he has never seen any evidence that there is.

I though to my self what I might say if I were talking to him. And here is what I would say. It came to me like an epiphany. I would say -- Don’t miss this:

"You’ve never seen anything else."

How simple. But this is true.

The Bible says that Christ is the light that illumines every man coming into the world (John Chapter 1). And Paul states that two things are true in this regard: One, that God had made creation so that it and all in it demonstrate clearly to the reason that there is an eternal and all powerful God. And two, that in addition to this, God goes to the effort to deal with every man’s thoughts in order to make this known. (Romans Chapter 1)

In other words, every man, that is, every member of Adam’s race, all of us, know both by reason and immediate illumination from God, that He exists, and that we and all we see are the works of His hands, and that we are accountable to Him for our life and deeds.

We know it whether we admit it or not. And if we resist this knowledge, or turn away from it, we do so with knowledge, so that we shall be inexcusable when we stand before God to give account of ourselves.

This is our dilemma. We are in rebellion, with knowledge, against the true God. No one is innocent. We are all guilty. We are all "miserable offenders" in the words of the Book of Common Prayer. We are rightly condemned before the righteous Almighty God.

It is against this hopeless plight that God extends to us complete righteousness as a free gift. He exchanged the sinless life of his Holy Son, counting Him a sinner, and arranging for His execution as such. And He offers to us, as a bookkeeping entry against our indebtedness, the Righteousness which His Son really had, even though He was counted a sinner. He offers this to all who will embrace His Beloved Son by believing on Him. And then, on that basis, just as He saw His Son a sinner, He sees one who believes on His Son, Jesus Christ, as fully righteous, even though he is not.

All this thought out over a colostomy bag dressing.