You may say to yourself, “My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.” But remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your ancestors, as it is today. – Deuteronomy 8:17-18

Today’s Scripture Reading (October 25, 2015): Deuteronomy 8

There are objects on Mars, the planet next door. And by objects, I mean things besides the Mars Rovers which are presently running around the red planet taking pictures. We created the Rovers, but these objects on Mars are truly without explanation. So far these things have included a large floating spoon, a ghost like apparition that seemed to be wandering over the surface of the planet, and now what looks like a Giant Buddha. With all of the evidence that has been gathered, one might expect NASA to finally conclude that not only is there a possibility that Mars once hosted life, but there is also a probability that there was once an intelligent civilization living right next door.

NASA, however, has been slow to jump to the same conclusions. They just don’t seem to see what the enthusiasts seem to think that they are seeing. And for good reasons. The human mind is very good at connecting the dots, even when there are really no dots to connect. It is the reason why we are able to develop great thought cases on nothing but circumstantial evidence. We find patterns and interpret those patterns into something that makes sense to us – we make even what is unknowable into something that we have seen before, like a woman with a flowing gown, or a floating spoon, or even a Giant Buddha. If we want to see something bad enough, our minds will allow us to see it.

It is probably the reason why we believe in the myth of the self-made person – the idea that we don’t need anyone else in order to be a success. The truth is that we do. No one is a success by themselves. We do everything by team.

But not only that, we do everything by the will of God. We look at the course that our lives have taken and we have the ability to simply connect the dots of our personal history and then come to the conclusion that we were the ones who did it. We see what we want to see, and our success becomes because of the things that we have done. But what we miss is the hand of God moving through our personal histories. And that is exactly what Moses warns Israel about – they must not miss the hand of the God in their history.

The biblical example of this principal is the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar. The story is told in the book of Daniel.

… as the king (Nebuchadnezzar) was walking on the roof of the royal palace of Babylon, ³⁰ he said, “Is not this the great Babylon I have built as the royal residence, by my mighty power and for the glory of my majesty?”

³¹ Even as the words were on his lips, a voice came from heaven, “This is what is decreed for you, King Nebuchadnezzar: Your royal authority has been taken from you. ³² You will be driven away from people and will live with the wild animals; you will eat grass like the ox. Seven times will pass by for you until you acknowledge that the Most High is sovereign over all kingdoms on earth and gives them to anyone he wishes” –Daniel 4:29-32.

We need to understand that our nature is such that we will always see patterns, and sometimes the patterns will only exist in the space between our ears. But if we ever see patterns where the hand of God is missing, then we are echoing the mistake of Nebuchadnezzar – and the patterns we are seeing are only real in the realm of our imaginations.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Deuteronomy 9