For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. (Colossians 1:16, ESV)
Imagine arriving at a golf course you’ve never played. Eighteen holes routed with purpose. Bunkers strategically placed. Greens that reward certain shots and punish others. Towering pines majestically framing each hole.
Standing on the first tee beside you are your three best friends, with whom you will spend the next three and a half hours laughing, ribbing, and competing for bragging rights.
You ask the starter, “Who designed this magnificent layout?”
Puzzled, he responds, “Designed it? Nobody designed it. Rain fell. Trees popped up. Bent grass grew in here while Zoysia grew there. Bunkers emerged. Over time, eighteen holes eventually appeared.”
How would you react? You wouldn’t believe him for a second. Why? Because we know design presupposes a designer. If this is true for a golf course, how much more for the world we inhabit?
We take for granted things like purpose, meaning, justice, reason, love, and human choice. Rarely do we pause to ask: Where do these things essential to life originate?
So, let’s pause and consider these signposts:
Signpost #1 The routing of a golf course — Purpose
A golf course expresses the architect’s plan. We assume the same thing about life. We desire purpose and want our lives to matter.
But if the universe is ultimately an accident, where does ultimate purpose come from? Roll the dice a billion times, and neither a golf course nor a purposeful universe appears.
Signpost #2 The rules — Justice
Move your ball when nobody is looking, and we don’t say, “Interesting choice.” We say, “That’s cheating.” Why? Because golf assumes standards that exist beyond the preferences of the individual player.
Betrayal, cruelty, murder—we don’t merely dislike them. We know some things are objectively wrong. But in a universe composed only of matter, where does that moral “ought” come from?
Signpost #3 The yardage — Reason
You’re 157 yards from the flag. You choose a club because you trust that your mind can understand the world around you.
Yet, if our brains are ultimately the unintended products of blind physical processes, why should we trust them to tell us what is true?
Christianity offers another explanation. Behind our minds is the Ultimate Mind, who designed our minds to correspond with the outside world we inhabit.
Signpost #4 Your playing partners — Love
We instinctively know that love matters. But why? If human beings are only random collections of atoms produced by an impersonal universe, love is reduced to chemistry in the brain.
Christianity says something astonishingly different: “God is love.” Love isn’t an accidental byproduct of a mindless universe. God’s fingerprints are all over it.
Signpost #5 The shot — Choice
You’re standing over the ball—go for the green or lay up? Every shot assumes our choices are real and that they have consequences.
But if everything about us is simply the inevitable result of prior physical causes, we should ask what kind of free will we really possess.
The argument isn’t that people who don’t believe in God don’t long for love, reason about weighty matters, seek justice, make choices, or pursue purposeful lives. The question is much more interesting: What makes those things ultimately real?
Sadly, far too many play the course of life while ignoring the Architect. Reason, love, justice, meaning, purpose, and the ability to choose are signposts pointing us back to the Author of them all.
Christianity says these things exist because reality isn’t ultimately grounded in chance. It is grounded in God.
After attending The Masters for the umpteenth time, would you argue with Fred Ridley that Alister MacKenzie and Bobby Jones didn’t design Augusta National— that it eventually emerged over billions of years with “Mother Nature’s help?”
If not, why would you look at everything that makes life worth living and conclude it is all an accident of time, matter, and chance?
Prayer: Father! Forgive us for taking these signposts for granted.