Five Fingers

Five Fingers
by Louise Bergmann DuMont

The man held up his hand, palm forward, five fingers raised like a banner. Hundreds of vehicles (with a total tonnage greater than a freight train) were brought to a halt by that one motion. Men and women, destitute and solvent, virtuous and corrupt… it didn’t matter. When the officer raised his hand, traffic stopped. For a brief moment I pondered the power in that hand. Then I smiled. The power was obviously not in those five raised fingers; it was all about the authority of the man who held up the fingers.

Some individuals use abusive verbal or physical intimidation to achieve specific actions, but no amount of force will earn them respect. There are those who their purchase attention with currency or favors, but nothing they do wins them the love they crave. Still others hope that physical perfection or prowess will gain them fame, but they soon find that the honor they achieve is only fleeting.

So what gives one man the authority to stop traffic with a raised hand? A little thought brought a quick conclusion. The officer stops traffic because drivers recognize his authority to do so – they know that the entire police force and our country’s judicial system are ready to support the officer’s decisions.

A bad cop, who abuses the authority vested in him, may get individuals to respond to his actions but they won’t give him the same respect.

Men and women who speak the truth of God’s Word also have an authority to back them up. The Heavenly Father stands behind His prophets and preachers and distributes consequences for disobedience to His laws. Jesus will someday judge those who disregard his representatives

A person’s ability to move others to action resides in the power sustaining them and the manner in which they represent that authority. A police officer does not feel the need to ‘convince’ people to obey and Christians who speak with the ultimate authority at their helm should not feel the need to ‘convince’ people that God’s Word is true.

They simply allow the authority they hold to speak for itself.

Therefore whoever rejects this rejects not human authority but God, who also gives his Holy Spirit to you. 1 Thessalonians 4:8

Glass Houses

Glass Houses
by Louise Bergmann DuMont

The glass home was a magnificent creation, but it was not until I examined a piece of it under a microscope that I saw the true beauty of its engineering. Thin layers of glass were glued into strands, then gathered with other strands to form bundles. Collections of these bundles were woven into a dazzling grid that rivaled the finest lace. The grid was flooded with a glass-like cement -- creating a structure suggestive of reinforced concrete. The result was a nearly indestructible glass house. Throwing stones at this home would do little harm to the glass but might do serious damage to a weary pitcher.

Surely the human creator of this wonder would be honored and lauded by society! Not so. For humanity had nothing to do with its creation. A simple sea sponge, from the genus Euplectalla, used its God given talent to create a tube-like home made of practically unbreakable glass.

Pondering this, I found myself preoccupied with numerous creations that suddenly made themselves known to me. Here are a few observations:

* In the cool of the evening I relished the brilliant, hues of a sunset that eagerly consumed the sky before darkness snuffed its flame.
* I marveled at the complex structure of my brain. For when I caught the scent of a Lilac bush, my grandmother (dead nearly 50 years) promptly came to mind. A smile played on my lips as I realized that a thing of God, even something as small as
the fragrance of a Lilac, could evoke memories of great significance.
* The velvet feel of a newborn's small fingers curled around my pinky and forced my eyes heavenward. I implored God for the child's protection as my own frailty and limited ability to shield the child from life's tragedies crystallized in that moment.
* The power, agility, grace and control of a feral cat inspired me and rebuked me at the same time. Each fiber and sinew of the cat seemed to strain toward the job that God created Him to do. How often did I use my God given gifts in the manner He intended, and how often did I misuse them?
* I sat in a cafeteria and listen to the conglomeration of voices - low and raspy, smooth and soothing, deep base, high alto, German, Indonesian, French and English. I wondered at the intricacy of forming ideas and putting those ideas into recognizable words. Then the thought struck me. Our God hears it all, comprehends it all and answers each call in perfect time. Even those concepts and beliefs that never fully form in our minds and hearts are clear to our Creator.

This brought me back to thoughts of glass houses. I'm stunned that any human could look at the remarkable, unduplicated, creation of the Glass Sponge and still not see the hand of God. Our world is full of scientific wonders that can not be reproduced by man. But these wonders do add up to the most incredible creatures and events. Humans simply need to drive our minds from the mundane, to the extraordinary. We must allow our senses to experience the past and the present, while focusing on the future. We must move our eyes from the brown earth, to the brilliant heavens. And then… we must give credit where credit is due.

For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. Ever since the creation of the world his eternal power and divine nature, invisible though they are, have been understood and seen through the things he has made. So they are without excuse; for though they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their senseless minds were darkened. Romans 1:19-21