The Real Battle Editorial FINDING FAITH in the FOXHOLES

I I I RECORD \I 1 9 9 9 Adventist leads NASA to North Pole ADRA at work in Albania Adelaide minister race- I track chaplain I The real battle editorial FINDING FAITH IN THE FOXHOLES nother series of tear-stained playing field. So you can cheer in mass graves. Compared to the faces appeared on the televi- when your team scores. That's the number who can't find their families. Asion news last night. A cute, danger of televised war for those of "God is with us," is a statement of but wistful looking girl looks at me us who live elsewhere—it's distant dramatic faith in these circum- through barbed wire in today's and it can be turned off, or we can stances. What kind of God would newspaper. I've heard the angry change channels to "The Simpson." allow this? is a question to challenge voices on the radio. From the comfort of our lounge the mind. War in Europe. Again. room, televised war fits in nicely To answer we need to remind Behind the scenes, nations work with "Chicago Hope" and "NYPD ourselves of the bigger battle—the frantically to prevent this localised Blue," except there are no ad breaks battle between good and evil, be- skirmish from being tipped into a for those in the war zone, and war- tween God and Satan. To remind broader conflict. Early this century zone blood is real blood. So is the ourselves that this behind-the-scenes World War I was sparked in the despair—just look at those tear- conflict does break out in our streets of Sarajevo, Yugoslavia, with stained faces. homes, in the streets of our cities the assassination of the archduke of and the nations of our world. And Austria, Franz Ferdinand, and his Where is God? to remind ourselves that God does wife, Sophia. Will the century, the A saying came out of the First not always intervene as the experi- millennium, end with World War III World War: "There are no atheists in ment with sin runs its dreadful being flamed from the same area? foxholes." Perhaps true, but how course. Love allows individuals, as it That's the fear. Again. many of those in foxholes were does nations, to make their own And who would have guessed cursing God for allowing them to be decisions, and to reap the conse- that Australia would be involved caught in their situation? quences. with two aid workers imprisoned How many have come back from Just because we don't see His and accused of spying? That caught war saying there can be no God, if tear-stained face on the news does- our attention. this is what He allows? "If God is n't mean God doesn't care, or that Television shows us the people supposed to be Love, why . ?" He isn't there. It may take a step of being displaced. As they lose touch they ask. faith to believe that, but then God with their families. As they're killed. The media reported that, in the always dares us to step out in faith. "It's one of those regrettable Yugoslav province of Vojvodina, I see that kind of faith in Djordje things that happen in a campaign slogans began appearing about the Popov, 77, and his wife, Amalka, 69. like this," said NATO commander 20th day of the war. They said, They're an Adventist couple living in General Wesley Clark. He made his "Hungarians: Your God is dead and Novi Sad, a city that has experienced comment after a NATO warplane hit doesn't care for you any more." The heavy bombing. "With no basement a train on a bridge it was targeting. message is interpreted as a warning shelter, we remained in our home, I'm sure that brought absolutely to Hungarians living in the area that trusting to God," they told Adventist no comfort to the survivors, and the they should get out. News Network (see families of those killed. And no con- Is war evidence that God is dead? Newsfront, page 10). fort to Ivan, who has family in the Sure, there are glimpses of God dur- They have the kind region. I sat behind him in church ing war—the occasional heroic of faith that remains last Sabbath. deed, the occasional incident that firm even in the Yet isn't this just another war? could be called a miracle. But they foxholes of war. Haven't we always had war? Yes, seem few when compared with the and from a distance it can seem like number of those who lose their pos- a game, with two teams attempting sessions and livelihood. Compared Bruce Manners to outmanoeuvre each other on a to the number who end up buried Next week Official Paper Manuscripts Should be sent to The Editor, RECORD, South Pacific Division Signs Publishing Company, Warburton, Victoria 3799. ACN 000 003 930 411114411116. Manuscripts or computer disks will only be returned if ADva.rnsrSEVFNM-DAY accompanied by a stamped, self-addressed envelope. Editor Bruce Manners CHURCH Phone (03) 5966 9111 Senior assistant editor Lee Dunstan Fax: (03) 5966 9019 Adventist Health Editorial assistant Brenton Stacey recordeal.com.au Editorial secretary Meryl McDonald-Gough Senior consulting editor Barry Oliver Subscriptions South Pacific Division, $A40.00 Week edition. $NZ73.00. All other regions, $A70.00. Air mail rates on application. Order from Signs Publishing Company, Vol 104 No 17 Warburton, Victoria 3799, Australia. Printed weekly by Cover photo: PhotoDisc Signs Publishing Company. M ay 8, 1 9 9 9 a dv entist life • THE DEEP, DEEP LOVE OF COD by Stephen Dunbar gave the OK signal and started Leaving the down. As I watched my gauge, flatworm along Ithe numbers clicked up-21 . with other 22 . 23 . 24 metres below the oddly shaped, surface. It was time to level off. imaginatively As I was now submerged in elec- coloured, and tric blue waters, the cool air from curiously acting my tank moved dryly past my throat sea creatures and filled my lungs as all around such as the sea me the marvels of the deep dazzled cucumber, my eyes and excited my thoughts. nudibranch and I'm always amazed at how differ- shrimp neigh- ent the creatures of the sea are from bours, I made terrestrial organisms, and this dive, my way just east of Great Keppel Island, toward a field would reveal God's imagination and of large sea creativity in ever more incredible anemones. ways. As always, each animal has its Even from place, its niche, its part to play, in far away I the brilliantly coloured and intimate- could see small ly organised drama of the deep. orange fish The excitement came swiftly as a bouncing green sea turtle rose up from some- around in this , where below the visible edge of a carpet of sting- coral head, its shape silhouetted ing tentacles. against the dancing light of the far- These anemone away sun, its fins slowly pressing fish (more common- against the fluid medium with ly called clown fish) had strength and confidence. Then, as built up resistance to the stinging all these creatures rely on God's mysteriously as it had appeared, it cells of the anemones and made mercy, on the Creator's love for His was gone. their homes among the anemones' creation to give them their "meat in All around me were evidences of protective arms (scientists still do not due season" and be "filled with the genius of God, the built-in fully understand how they do this). good." adaptability of every creature after In return for protection, the My dive into the deep was ending its kind (Genesis 1:21). God's love anemones received small scraps and just as it had begun. I was still think- of beauty, creativity and humour bits of meals that the clown fish had ing—thinking of how God, in the was expressed in colours, shapes eaten nearby. It was truly a sharing midst of running His universe, would and oddities too imaginative for relationship. However, the relation- take the time to reveal His love for nature alone to have developed. ship is even more intimate when it us. Not only had He created, but He D Catching my attention from a dis- comes to the microscopic plants that had built into His creation the variety tance, a rock wall appeared alive live inside the tentacles of the and adaptability few places on earth with moving, crawling, darting anemone itself. reveal as clearly as the ocean's organisms. Some, like the stationary Not only do these algae produce deeps. I couldn't help thinking that gorgonian fan (a type of soft coral), the red, blue and brown hues of the no matter how far below the waves I extended small feeding nets, called tentacles that we can see, but in might ever be able to venture, still polyps, that filter even smaller exchange for free lodging, they farther below His creatures would be plants and animals from the sur- combine sunlight, water and carbon there to reveal the deep, deep love rounding waters. Others, like the dioxide to produce simple sugars of God. 111 three-centimetre polyclad flatworm, that are given to the anemone and crawled slowly, fearlessly, over the used as food. rock and onto my finger with its In Psalm 104:25-31 David marvels Stephen Dunbar is a professor in the ostentatious decoration warning of at how great and how vast the Department of Biology at Central its distastefulness to a potential oceans are, and how many living Queensland University.

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