I was recently on a long haul flight and since they had no movies that interested me I ended up browsing through the TV series they had available and eventually decided to watch the American pioneer series 1883. I must say that I found it so compelling that I managed to watch almost the entire series before we landed. I did manage to catch up on the last two episode of the first series later on and it rates comfortably inside my top 10 series of all time. The series touches on so many themes which really spoke to me; the value of the journey, the true cost of baggage, how hard life was barely 150 years ago, the majesty of nature and the value of perspective. I could go on, but I’m not writing this to talk about the series, although I do really recommend it. It’s definitely not for under 16’s though.
What I really have on my mind was illustrated so well in a scene towards the end of the series. (Don’t worry, there won’t be any spoilers) Two of the main characters, James Dutton and his daughter Elsa share an intimate moment where they each think back to their very first memory. James recalls how a man played peekaboo with him.
He looked up at me and he smiled, put his hands over his eyes and said ‘Peekaboo, I see you.’ Then he covered his eyes with his hands, and said ‘But you can’t see me. Where am I?’ I didn’t understand the game. He was hiding behind his hands, and I could see him, plain as day. I thought he was a fool.”
It struck me that this is what so many do to God these days. We hide behind our “hands”, believing we’re now safely hidden from the eyes of our Creator, when all we really accomplish is blinding ourselves and proving our foolishness. I can just picture God sitting there, shaking his head.
What manner of foolishness has overtaken our society that we are able to fool ourselves to such a degree? We have convinced ourselves that God doesn’t exist and that we can hide from His sight, we have kept Him out of eyeshot just long enough to forget that at the end of it all, we answer to Him. No man’s deeds will go unanswered and there is no escaping the justice of God.
What is more, when we as a society convince ourselves that we have moved on from God and “religion”, that science and our own reason have made us into our own gods, we merely reveal the bankruptcy of our thinking.
The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.
Solomon (Proverbs 9:10)