I think we can all agree that this winter has been long and hard. Hopefully by the time the March edition of the congregational magazine is in circulation, the first signs of spring will be visible to lift our hearts. On the balcony outside the study, I can see a large potted camellia that was given to me 8 years ago. The flower buds are fat and will produce magnificent rich pink flowers in the coming weeks. There are also many spring bulbs in pots and tubs in our small garden. Ever since I was a child, the complex patterns of the natural world have inspired me and continue to remind me that the God who is revealed in the scriptures is also the creator of nature’s splendour. God has left many ‘clues’ of his presence in the universe, the one I have described above is known as the ‘argument from design’.

There are other ‘clues’ that God leaves, which reflect his providential work in creation. There is the ‘cosmological argument’. The fact that the cosmos exists: that there is ‘something’ rather than ‘nothing’ adds weight to the presence of a benevolent creator. Then there is the ‘anthropic argument’. There exists 30 constants in the natural realm, which if they were ‘out’ by the tiniest of a fraction, would have meant we would have ceased to exist. So well-tuned are the laws and regularity in the natural world.

Lastly there is there is argument from ‘beauty’. The beauty that we find in art or music has the capacity to transport us to another place. The late composer Leonard Bernstein rhapsodised about the effect of Beethoven on him ‘Beethoven...turned out pieces of breath-taking rightness. Rightness-that's the word! When you get the feeling that whatever note succeeds the last is the only possible note that can rightly happen at that instant, in that context, then chances are you're listening to Beethoven. Melodies, fugues, rhythms-leave them to the Tchaikovskys and Hindemiths and Ravels. Our boy has the real goods, the stuff from Heaven, the power to make you feel at the finish: Something is right in the world. There is something that checks throughout, that follows its own law consistently: something we can trust, that will never let us down.’ (1)

Of course popular writers like Richard Dawkins or Daniel Dennet are zealous in their criticism of those who think of such phenomena as ‘clues’ of God’s presence. Such sceptics might argue that we find the universe as it is out of chance (no matter how remote) rather than out of purpose. These two opposing world views cannot be resolved by rational argument. One side speaks from the position of ‘faith’ while the other speaks from the perspective of ‘scepticism’. The sceptic needs to make the ‘leap of doubt’ before they tackle the ‘leap of faith’.

Christians rely on more than the ‘clues’ of God that we described as God’s general grace. We take things further by relying upon the scriptures, which give the account of God’s specific grace to us through the story of salvation. Ultimately for us, God’s specific grace is supremely revealed in the coming of Jesus Christ who fulfils his Father’s plans and purposes of salvation through the incarnation, his ministry, the cross, the resurrection and ascension. Specific grace does something to us; it demands a response! But not a response that is luke-warm or mealy-mouthed. We do well to reflect the words of Jesus to the Church in Leodecia ‘I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish that you were either one or the other! So because you are lukewarm- neither hot nor cold- I am about to spit you out of my mouth.’ [Rev 3:15-16].