Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.

• 1 John 4:8

God is faithful, who has called you into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

• 1 Corinthians 1:3

Surely God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart.

• Psalm 73:1

On January 19, 2024, I started the “The Faith” mini-series on Friday afternoon, writing a post each week about the doctrines that Chuck Colson thought were foundational.  The very first one was “God Is.”

I went to one of my favorite quiet places to pray about the series in general and I had written so much about the existence of God.  Romans 1:20 says that we have no excuse.  God makes Himself known to us.  But I thought about those who reject God and all the proof in nature.  The Bible is filled with verses about how the world rejects God as being foolishness, but to a true believer God is in everything.

So, I sat in my recliner on the first floor, almost in tears.  I had a wealth of information where I could make “God Is” a mini-series all of its own, but sometimes I get upset when I just do not have enough information.  This time, I had too much, or so I thought.

Well, my recliner is positioned so that I can see the television easily.  Actually, until my wife became so ill that she rarely left her bedroom, it was her mamasan chair.  My place was the couch, but the couch cushions were breaking down.  I could use it as a recliner, but when I laid down, spots on the couch rubbed me in unfortunate places.  So, with my wife in the bedroom, the mamasan chair became the papasan chair, and I no longer had to watch television at an angle.

But with the television off, I saw a large black rectangle and a window just above it that was shaped into an octagon.  Through that tiny window, I saw the limbs of a tree in the neighbor’s yard, two houses up the hill.

In the limbs of the tree (in winter), I clearly saw the word “IS.”  (Inside the red circle in the photo above, taken outside the window so the image is not an absolutely pure IS. The I is a block “I” with a bar at the top and bottom, and it is thinner than the “S”. But the angle is also off, just a little.)  It was framed in a rectangle and the rectangle tilted at a forty-five degree angle.  From any other vantage point, more than a few degrees off, the “IS” disappeared.

But God wanted me to see it that day.  I could write a book on reasons why I know that God is.  But on that day, God was telling me to keep it simple, and letting me know that He was there even during a tiny bit of writer’s block.

Everyone listen up.

GOD IS!

And while we are at it, God is love.  God is faithful.  God is good.

And when you need God to give an answer to prayer, God lets you know.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.