IN THE beginning God (prepared, formed, fashioned, and) created the heavens and the earth. (Amplified Bible).

Thus starts the beginning of the book of the beginning, Genesis 1:1. All kinds of theories exist about how that happened, but the problem the theorists have is that however clever they are, they’re not eye witnesses – they were not there at the time when time started.

Just next to my house is a field. In the field is a patch, 40ft square, where the most beautiful hyacinths are just starting to flower. Driving past, like many visitors to the village, you might wonder why this patch just happens to be there in a farmer’s field. How did that come about? Who planted them?

What you won’t think is, “That ‘just happened.’ ”

In the words of physicist/ cosmologist Paul Davies, ‘….the big bang represents the creation event; the creation not only of all the matter and energy in the universe, but also of spacetime itself.’ Not just matter and energy, but physical space and time came into existence at the Big Bang. You either believe that Someone created everything out of nothing (ex nihilo), or, as Gerald Coates contends, you can believe that nothing created nothing out of nothing!

Atheist philosopher Kai Nielsen wrote, ‘Suppose you suddenly hear a loud bang, and you ask me, ‘What made that bang?’ and I reply, ‘Nothing, it just happened.’ You wouldn’t accept that. In fact you would find such a reply quite unintelligible.

Well, what’s true of the little bang is also true of the Big Bang. It must have been caused. From the very nature of what was made, this cause would have to be uncaused, immaterial, changeless, timeless, and enormously powerful.

But we have to go beyond looking at the creation and acknowledging there was a Creator, that’s doesn’t require faith – just a lack of ignorance (Too harsh? look at 2 Peter 3!).

Going back to the hyacinths, I happened to be walking by that field last year when I saw a man digging rows in a field. The ex policeman in me was suspicious! I went over and (nicely) asked what he was doing. Wiping his brow as he had been digging away in the heat, he told me. Seems some rare hyacinths were likely to be doomed as a result in the change of the landscape in a different part of Britain they naturally grew in, as a result of the awful flooding around the Cheltenham/ Gloucester area.

This near neighbour I hadn’t met before, is an expert on hyacinths, and discovered this particular field is perfect for them, he was preparing the ground for the bulbs reception!

It didn’t just happen!

Someone made it happen!

I met him!

He communicated!

He cares enough about creation – to do whatever it takes to rescue it!

And that, by the way, is the gospel.