Faith Revealed

            A couple of weeks ago my wife and I spent a week on the edge of The Great Smokie Mountains in North Carolina.  We both grew up in North Georgia, and we have always enjoyed the hills and the valleys of the area. My family often took vacations in the mountains of Georgia, Tennessee, and North Carolina, and Tina and I spent our honeymoon in Gatlinburg.  The mountains are one of our favorite places to visit.

            While we were there we saw the beginnings of the changing colors of the leaves.  Probably this week to the end of October would be the absolute best time, but we were blessed to see some of the beauty of the Fall. 

            I’ve said this often, both in this column, as well as is in weekly sermons. Not only that, but simply in general conversations I have said the same thing. I cannot understand how a person can view the beauty of nature all around us and claim to believe that there is no God.  It is incomprehensible to me to think that this universe came to be by accident. 

            We live in a beautiful part of the world ourselves. I’ve never been a huge fan of poetry, but I recall one particular poet from my Old English Class at Shorter College. Sydney Lanier wrote a poem entitled, “The Marshes of Glynn.”  While we are north of Glynn County, we enjoy the beauty of our own marshes. Two lines in his poem have stamped themselves on my memory. 
            He wrote, “And belief overmasters doubt, and I know that I know…” Yes, we all have moments of doubt. But as we see the handiwork of God, faith wins out. The more recent slogan is, “Faith over Fear.”  And it is true. And later in the poem we read, “I build me a nest on the greatness of God,” “I will fly in the greatness of God,” and “I will heartily lay me ahold on the greatness of God.”  He uses the phrase, “greatness of God,” at least four times in a short space. 

            Mr. Lanier understood this truth. Our lives depend upon the greatness of God.  I pray for you that faith will overmaster doubt, and I pray that you will find your peace in the greatness of God.