Signature of the Divine

As a left-handed child, I found learning cursive writing to be a challenge. Writing flows from the left side of the page to the right, which meant I had to hook my left hand over the line of writing or slant my letters in the wrong direction. Neither satisfied me, so I determined to practice until my script looked like it was written right-handed. I began with my signature. For the first letter of my given name I developed a leaning V with a dramatic upstroke at the end, arching over the rest of the letters. I still sign my name that way, many years later. It is my original signature, distinctive to me alone.

God inscribes His indelible signature on the vast canvas of creation. He first declared Himself by what He created from nothing. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” (Genesis 1:1 NIV) Every mountain, every tree, every animal, every grain of sand is imprinted with God’s signature. Like an artist signing his painting, God reveals who He is in all He has made. “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge.”  (Psalm 19:1-2)

Even those who deny the existence of God must question their unbelief when they survey the world in which they live. From vast galaxies in space to microbes invisible to the naked eye, each unique aspect of creation displays the signature of a divine Designer. “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities — His eternal power and divine nature — have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.”  (Romans 1:20)

A signature is a hand written depiction of the signer’s name on a document as proof of identity and intent. God has written His name on every person He has created. We are made in His moral image as proof of His identity. “So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God He created them; male and female He created them.”  (Genesis 1:27) We are not some hastily scribbled postscript; we are God’s ultimate creation, intended for relationship with Him. A signature on a work of art verifies its authenticity. Proof that we come from the hand of God is found in our desire to reach out beyond ourselves for connection with our Creator. “You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.” (2 Corinthians 3:3)

God’s signature is everlasting, becoming more legible as we allow His Spirit to transform us. “And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” (2 Corinthians 3:18)  As we grow closer to God in our walk with Him, His signature will be clearly evident for others to read as the beauty of His flowing script is displayed in how we live.

Study a Snowflake

The grass is still green and some leaves yet on the trees when the first lazy snowflakes come drifting down. It is early for snow, even here on the Canadian prairies; just a tease of what is to come, I think.

Like white feathers shaken from the wings of angels, the flakes float earthward. I go outside, turn my face up to the sky and get lost in the swirl, entranced by each crystal kiss upon my cheek. Remembering that every snowflake is unique in design, a combination of crystals only made once, intensifies the wonder.

No amount of cold, hard scientific explanation can detract from the intricate beauty of a magnified snowflake. Technology has equipped scientists to photograph individual snowflakes with precise detail. They are microscopic works of art, beautiful symmetry too small to see with the naked eye.

Author and naturalist, Henry David Thoreau, said of snowflakes, “How full of the creative genius is the air in which these are generated! I should hardly admire more if real stars fell and lodged on my coat. Nature is full of genius, full of the divinity, so that not a snowflake escapes its fashioning hand.” The “fashioning hand” he refers to belongs to God, the Creator. Even a man steeped in Indian spiritual thought recognizes that snowflakes could only be divinely designed.

Such is the unlimited imagination of our Creator God. “He says to the snow ‘Fall on the earth,’ and to the rain shower, ‘Be a mighty downpour.’ so that everyone He has made may know His work. – (Job 37:6-7 NIV) The Creator shows Himself to His creatures through His creation. So the question arises, why does God make something unlikely to be seen in its minute beauty so ephemeral? Does it really matter that each snowflake is beautiful in its own form, no two alike, when it is destined to melt away?

As with so many questions about God, I believe the answer is love. By placing His fingerprint on every single snowflake He is saying to us, “See how I love you! I want everything around you to be beautiful, to bless you and cause you to see Me and turn to Me.” A snowflake is only one wonder out of the myriad of His creations which speaks love in its beauty, intricacy and purpose.

In one way a snowflake resembles God’s ultimate creation, man. Each single snowflake, like each human being, is original, genuine, one of a kind. “For You shaped me, inside and out. You knitted me together in my mother’s womb long before I took my first breath. I will offer You my grateful heart, for I am Your unique creation, filled with wonder and awe.” (Psalm 139:13-14 The Voice) Every one of the seven billion people on earth today is unique unto themselves, formed by the loving hands of their Creator to be an individual like no other. Does that not speak love?

A snowflake cannot wonder about its maker, but I can. I wonder what He was thinking when He formed me in my mother’s womb? Did He stretch out my fingers to make them long and narrow? What shade of autumn leaf did He imagine when He chose the color of my hair? Did it give Him pleasure to plant joy with each word I would someday write?

Having come from a temperate climate to a place where there are four distinct seasons, snow is still a novelty to me. I hope l never lose the wonder of a fresh snowfall. May each minute snowflake remind me of God’s limitless capacity to create distinctiveness in nature and people. The fact that we cannot fully comprehend the vast diversity displayed in the universe should be sufficient evidence of God’s existence for those who doubt.
Just study a snowflake.

(photo courtesy of  SnowCrystals.com.)