Yes, I Believe God Is Real -- Alton H. Howard

 

This fellow didn’t have to look very far to see why he could answer that “Yes, I Believe God Is Real”. He might have been thinking about what it would be like to have God’s viewpoint of this blue spheroid He created, and indeed Alton Howard saw God in everything he could see in the earth and the universe that He created. (See here the earth, as God might have when He created it.) And so, that spurred Alton’s short testimonial in four verses and a chorus, and they’re not filled with any deep theology, but rather with suggestions about what anyone with two good eyes could ascertain. ‘Just look around yourself’, Alton might have summed up for anyone who asked him about God’s credibility and presence. It might strike a skeptic as too simple, but can you explain what you see without God in the picture? What takes more faith, to believe or not to believe? Is He really too incredible, or absurd? Alton didn’t think so.

 

Alton might easily be described as an exceptional person, and yet he pointed to whom he thought was truly exceptional – as the word actually means, according to the dictionary – and that would be God. Incomparable would be another appropriate adjective for Him, and how Alton perceived that incomparability is what his poem-song is all about. Though what, if any, specific event or circumstances stirred Alton’s inspiration for this song in 1973 (the year associated with its publication) are unknown, this author needed only what his life’s trajectory and its focus of worship spoke to him daily for the song’s content. So much could be said of Alton and his entrepreneurship and how his accomplishments resonate still today, and indeed if you want to know them, just check out the links below this entry – Alton’s obituary was certainly not one of mourning, but a celebration of a life so well lived. But if Alton could be called an entrepreneur extraordinaire, do you think it’s possible he was just looking at someone else as his model? What person looking at what He’s created – and Alton certainly looked quite closely, we could say – would conclude other than how Alton did? Alton Howard ticked them off in his few words – the stars and sky (v.1); storm(s) and the morn(ing) of each new day (v.2); things as small and unnoticed as dew, and others as lively as birds (v.3); and the sun and the evening shade that calibrate our walk here below (v.4). Is that enough to compel belief? Which one in the scope of Alton’s life was the true entrepreneur? God has many names, but when one looks at Alton and what he had to say about Him, other adjectives and names for God come to mind as we examine Alton’s life and how he reflected Him. Perhaps impresario or mogul are how we might characterize Him; how about genius or virtuoso? One of Alton’s eulogists said that he had ‘a pretty good batting average’ in the business things he tried, while having a few that did not work out. But, that’s part of the human experience, isn’t it? Even Christians don’t bat 1.000, though Alton kept swinging.

 

If Alton struck out on a few things, that doesn’t mean he became a doubter. It seems Alton wasn’t necessarily looking at his own achievements and his own efforts to imitate Him as a gauge for his belief. If that had been the barometer, Alton probably would have quit pretty early on in his journey. That’s what we can see if we look at this one extraordinary guy from West Monroe, Louisiana. He must have had a huge reserve of trust in the One whose creation spoke to him so clearly. ‘Try one thing, maybe, and if it doesn’t work out and point to Him or provide for others to see Him better, I’ll try something else’. That sounds like what must have played and replayed in Alton’s mind continually. He’s a God who doesn’t demand perfection, and so I can try again. Fall down? Get back up, and keep looking up. He’s got more in store for you. Others might say you were remarkable, as they reflect on a human life. What’s really remarkable is how He lets us bear His image at all.         

 

Read about the author-composer here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alton_Hardy_Howard   and also here: https://christianchronicle.org/songbook-publisher-entrepreneur-howard-dies-at-age-81/?A=SearchResult&SearchID=2809510&ObjectID=4369268&ObjectType=35

 

Information on the image is found here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:The_Blue_Marble,_AS17-148-22727.jpg … This file is in the public domain in the United States because it was solely created by NASA. NASA copyright policy states that "NASA material is not protected by copyright unless noted". (See Template:PD-USGov, NASA copyright policy page or JPL Image Use Policy.)---found inside this document -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth 

God, Who Stretched the Spangled (Heavens) -- Catherine Cameron

 

This one gestated inside her for months, and that might have been necessary for Catherine Cameron to really capture something essential about creativity. When she looked up (see the image of the heavens here, as it was seen by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, released for us to see on 11 July 2022) and thought about “God Who Stretched the Spangled (Heavens)”, and evaluated herself and the others around her, Catherine marveled and bid God to instruct us mortals even more about what it means to mimic Him in creativity. Do we appreciate that finding Him in the world of science can be both a terrifying and a thrilling exercise in discovery? ‘Be real, real, careful out there!’, as someone has said. Approaching and actually contacting Him is an awesome thing, and to see and comprehend what He’s made – including each of us – should make you and me behave with great care, for we are in His image (Genesis 1:26-27; Exodus 9:6). Catherine Cameron makes us think about that.

 

Catherine shared that she was experiencing a creative renaissance in the mid-1960s – in a way she was growing in her likeness with God – when she wrote about Him who created, and found an urge to stretch human ingenuity ever closer toward Him. That’s a laudable goal. It was the space-race years, as one group of humans tried to reach the Moon before another group of humans might try to do the same. Catherine was nearing or right at 40 years of age (depending on which year she actually wrote ‘God, Who Stretched…’), and she responded, when asked about her creation, that she was hearkening back to her teenage years and the poetry she found herself contemplating then. The incongruity sometimes between the words and the music that believers were prompted to offer to Him just bothered Catherine. Should not both the lyrics and the melodious sounds flow in the same direction? She determined that that was her objective as a creative being. But her response would not be like an eruption, an explosion of innovation. Instead, it was more like a small flame that was kept alive for several months that caused her poetry to emerge in four verses, matching a tune that was ready and waiting for her words. (The tune she chose initially was the 1797 Austrian Hymn by Joseph Haydn; Holy Manna was another tune, written in 1825 by the Columbian Harmony, that is often paired today with Catherine’s words.) Catherine’s poetry in two of her verses (one and three) exalt God for the universe and the basic building block of life – the atom – and proclaim our aspirations to be like Him, even as we risk ‘life’s destruction’ (v.3) spurred by our own curiosity. Catherine seemed to accept that risk, while deploring some of our inventions, our ‘modern cities’ (v.2) that leave us empty as a people ‘lost to purpose and to meaning’. Self-indulgence is a trap, and perhaps that is what Catherine saw in so much of the everyday hubbub of modernity, a blur of people wrapped up in themselves and what they do to approach self-actualization. What about God-actualization? That seemed to be Catherine’s aim for our race in verse four – ‘honoring You’, so that ‘our goals and Yours are one’. If we see a ‘horizon beckon’, we should acknowledge that we’re seeing Him in the majesty of His handiwork. His symphony is abiding every day for us to see and hear.             

 

There are some 85 verses in the bible that speak about image, so consider them when you think about His creativity. Read them closely, and you can see without much effort that He’s the only one we should acknowledge with respect; no other images are acceptable (Exodus 20:4; Leviticus 26:1; Deuteronomy 5:8), and note how many times God says, as if through clenched teeth, ‘vile images’ (especially in Ezekiel). That is such a crucial part in knowing and relating to Him -- that each of us is His image-bearer (Romans 8:29), a responsibility with lots of gravity. It can also mean celebration, as Paul reminds us in that letter to the Romans. He’s the only one, and each of us is like Him in that image-ness, made to follow Him in renewal (see also 1 Corinthians 15:49, 2 Corinthians 3:8, and Colossians 1:15; 3:10). It’s admittedly hard to fathom, isn’t it? What a gift! Though I cannot completely grasp His creativity, it is like encountering a new discovery in science, something wondrous but also potentially pretty dangerous. Catherine included the ‘secrets of the atom…unimagined power’ in her 3^rd verse, hitting upon something very true. How dangerous is the atom today, or for those who probed it a century ago before they really understood radioactivity? Humans can get twisted sideways into various contortions, even without the radioactivity of an atom. Today is 9/11, the anniversary of a day 25 years ago when humans destroyed rather than created. It’s been something like 60 years since Catherine created her ode to God about us creating and trying to be more like Him who put this gene inside us. How do you think we’re doing? Go create. Watch out for the Destroyer, but know the Creator is greater.      

 

Read the story of the hymn here: https://www.umcdiscipleship.org/resources/history-of-hymns-god-who-stretched-the-spangled-heavens and here: https://hymninfo.com/songs/god-who-stretched-the-spangled-heavens

 

See information on the image here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Webb%27s_First_Deep_Field.jpg …This file is in the public domain because it was created by NASA, ESA and CSA. Material from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope is copyright-free and may be freely used as in the public domain without fee, on the condition that only NASA, STScI, and/or ESA/CSA is credited as the source of the material. This license does not apply if source material from other organizations is in use. …found inside this document -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outer_space

Only a Holy God -- Michael Farren, Jonny Robinson, Dustin Smith, Rich Thompson

They took their cues from what the seraphim had to say (see the image of two of them around the divine throne in this 14^th Century artwork, God Surrounded by Seraphim). The seraphim sang about a holy God (Isaiah 6), and Michael Farren, Jonny Robinson, Dustin Smith, and Rich Thompson thought about scoping that out some more. ‘In what ways is He holy?’, is the question they really wanted to answer. And so, they pursued their response with a set of still more questions, and the result of their interrogation was the title words of this song – “Only a Holy God”. What other beings do what He’s done, appear as He has, exert themselves the way He’s shown, or choose willingly to sacrifice the way He did? Why would such a unique being relate to us in all of these ways? He could be confounding to you if you really gotta have tangible, earthbound answers. This God doesn’t answer all my whys?, as Job discovered (Job 38-41). His only answer really is Himself, something that Jesus tried to tell a group of followers once (John 14:9).

 

These four musicians – Michael, Jonny, Dustin, and Rich (hereafter referred to as MJDR) – come from the City Alight music ministry in an Anglican church in Sydney, Australia, where they were engaged in 2016 in an ongoing project to develop songs that communicate bible truths via simple and yet meaningful lyrics and music. Each of the four verses of ‘Only a Holy God’ focuses on a different aspect of God’s character through three penetrating questions in each verse, answering each time with the song’s title words. True to their mission-vision, MJDR went straight to the bible as they began their quest; Isaiah’s vision gave them the spark they needed to launch their own exploration and portrayal of Him. They first centered on His authority over all creation, those in heaven and the earthbound ones, too – ‘hosts of heaven’, ‘king(s)’, and even the ‘darkness’. In verse two, they marveled at His ‘glory’, ‘beauty’, and ‘majesty’, and how he nevertheless rules with divine ‘justice’. His omnipotence, in verse three, might be terrifying to some because He can ‘consume like fire’, and yet He ‘can raise the dead’, underscoring that His omnipotence is infused not with a thirst for punishment, but rather invigoration of His image-bearers. Finally, His personal action to ‘rescue’ me (verse four) and draw me to Himself through ‘His only Son’ is so magnetic – who wouldn’t want to call such a One ‘Father’? Only a Holy God answers all 12 of MJDR’s questions. Are there others that could be asked? Certainly. And, we could then try looking at all the various rhetoric that God throws at Job’s feet, and answer Him with the same degree of humility. He’s already answered in the way that is most meaningful to me personally. He is the answer.

 

Does knowing He’s the answer make things simpler for me? Or, does it make my journey less rough? Honestly, Job still had to navigate through all the potholes and questions, and was still afflicted without really finding much solace. He just had to endure. Maybe that’s the point, in God’s plan. I don’t really discover Him without some pain; otherwise, He’s just a vending machine for my pleasure, which can be fickle. And, He’s not just sitting on a throne watching and waiting for my devotion. MJDR includes the most important part of knowing who He is. And that’s realizing that He decided to become like me, a human. And yet, He, though God, astounded His companions and enemies to become so very much more human and remain Divine simultaneously, in order to accomplish His purpose. He chose human pain and disappointment, invited rejection and suffering, and died in a way that was considered the worst a human could endure in the 1^st Century. Was he merely curious and passionate about going to the nth degree of human-ness? Why’d you do this, God? It’s a question that takes a lifetime – His and mine, joined together – to pursue. Musing about Him and myself is the point of life. That seems like what MJDR was doing for all of us.  

 

Read the story behind/comments about the song here: https://cornerstonerbc.com/worship/only-a-holy-god

 

Read about the CityAlight ministry in Australia here: About | CityAlight

 

See information on the image here: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Seraphim_-_Petites_Heures_de_Jean_de_Berry.jpg... This work is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 100 years or fewer. .. {{PD-1996}} – public domain in its source country on January 1, 1996 and in the United States… found inside this document -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seraph