Early this morning as I was reading Psalm 104 I paused as the sun came up and watched everything around me being revealed in the light. As I sat there I reflected on those who believe in and espouse “evolution” and attribute everything around us to some unknown process that slowly but assuredly has put everything in place. I thought about how I have viewed them over the years with disdain and even anger as they hailed their learned wisdom on the world. This morning, however, I realized something… I have “evolved.”

That word, evolution, is nothing if it isn’t a hot button. When we hear it, most of us don’t find ourselves sitting in the middle. Either we embrace it as the answer or shun it as if it were a hot coal in our hand. Perhaps our problem is not with the word itself but with the understanding we have attached to it.

As the days rapidly slip by and the number 70 becomes a nearer reality for me I have spent some hours with the Lord, reflecting on how my view of many things in life has changed over the years. That’s one of the blessings of growing older, a lot of the competitive energy I used to have has been re-channeled. In reading Psalm 104 the words of the psalmist reminded me of the creation story in Genesis.

 Ps 104:24 O Lord, how manifold are thy works! In wisdom has thou made them all: the earth is full of thy riches.

Sitting there this morning I thought about a young Tommy sitting in the  grass, contemplating the passage of a bug on it’s way to somewhere, watching a butterfly flit back and forth in the garden or looking up and wondering what the hawk could see as he made lazy circles in the sky. In looking back, the Lord showed me the places where dreams were made, where thoughts were set, and where seeds were sown. Back then, time moved slowly and minutes and hours contemplating the world around me didn’t have the meaning they have today.

What I realized this morning is that  as we have grown older we have all, in some way, left those days of awe and wonder behind. That wasn’t God’s plan. Part of coming to Him as a little child is to come with our eyes wide open in expectation of the revelation of yet another part of His creation. When we do slow down and allow Him to make those revelations for us we find out that we truly are Evolving!

I’ve realized, in my life, that in fact I have been involved in the process of evolution ever since that moment that God placed me in my mother’s womb. At that very moment He began a process that has involved both of us; God and me. At the outset He placed within me everything I need to grow older, but there was an element He left out. It was a key part that I needed to add to the process. Once I yielded my life to Jesus that  part began to go to work. That part was the key to my evolution, my evolution into becoming a fully mature, son of God.

The evolutionist will tell you that he can’t say with certainty just how it started but he can with certainty tell you how we evolved out of it. I used to deride him for his “misguided” belief, but now I am saddened by the fact that he doesn’t believe in or understand the loving Creator that gave him his desire for knowledge and understanding in the first place.

Sitting here this morning I realized something that  fills my heart with joy… I have indeed “evolved.” As I look back on those days long ago I realize that today, I am once again looking at God’s creation with awe and wonder. I also look at something else, something that  is far more awesome. As a son of God I have evolved spiritually.

Whoa! Wasn’t that the plan all along?

God created us as a spirit and gave us a body (an earthly tabernacle) that has the capacity to function in the most minute and infinite ways. It carries us through life and if we take care of it, it functions without our even noticing the millions of things that are going on automatically. On the  other hand, our ability to evolve spiritually, to evolve in our relationship with our Creator doesn’t happen without our knowledge.

There was a time when Tommy pondered and meditated on bugs, butterflies, and hawks in the sky. But since those days he has evolved and now He ponders the Creator of bugs, butterflies, and hawks in the sky. And he ponders the fact that the Creator put them all here for one reason… for Tommy to enjoy.

What an awesome God we love and serve. He created a universe so vast we will never see the end of it while we are still here on earth. He created a micro-system within us that we will explore until the day He returns. And yet, as vast as are His knowledge and thoughts, He waits patiently for us every day so that He can reveal more of them to us. The problem is that we are so focused on the creation that we too frequently leave the Creator out of the equation.

Perhaps that’s one of the blessings of number 70. The closer I get to it the more joy I find in contemplating the things God has placed around me. I also realize that my desire to spend more time with Him has evolved from those days of a short Sunday visit to early morning chats.

Yes, Tommy has evolved and matured (both physically and spiritually). But now when I look at bugs, butterflies, and hawks in the sky I don’t meditate on how and why… I meditate on the awesome God who created them all… who created me to enjoy them all… who paid heaven’s highest price so that I can evolve into the person He created me to be.