Farmers in the state of Washington were blaming bad weather for their poor wheat crops, their stunted corn and their sick cattle. Some thought that their own farming skills were at fault.
Then they found that the fertilizer they had bought in good faith and spread on their land to feed it might very well be the cause of their troubles. A nearby steel mill pours a dark powder into the top of a silo. It is classified as “hazardous waste.” From the bottom of that silo the same material, unaltered, comes out as raw material for fertilizer.
Who can you trust?
The art world has been stunned to find that many of Van Gogh’s paintings—paintings worth millions of dollars—may be very clever fakes. One of his famous “Sunflower” series was sold to a Japanese firm for $39.5 million by Christie’s auctioneers, of London. Is it possible that something so expensive could be a fake?
Then, who can you trust?
A young man approached an elderly widow. “Ma’am, your driveway is in bad shape, but my company can resurface it for you.” It will cost more than she can afford, and the new surface will wash off with the first hard rain. “But he seemed such a nice young man,” she moans. “Who can you trust?”
From rich or poor, individuals or whole communities, the question rises: “Who can you trust?”
Look at the coins (U.S.) in your pocket and the fresh bills from the bank. One and all they proclaim: “In God we trust.” It may seem that our trust is in the money, not the message, but to trust the money and not the message would be disastrous!
There is everlasting trustworthiness in the One who set the planets in their orbits, who controls the courses of the most distant stars, who can turn from the vastness of the universe and promise that the seasons, “seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease” (Gen. 8:22), while the earth remains. What a promise! Believe it? Of course!
You have seen the sun, the stars, the changing seasons—you believe. What about the promises you cannot see fulfilled yet? Do you believe that “whosoever believeth in Him [Jesus Christ] should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16)? Really believe it? And have you received that everlasting life for yourself?
This promise is like a coin. There are two sides to it. “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life” is absolutely true. BUT, “he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him” (John 3:36). One side is just as certain, just as sure, as the other. Believe it! In God we can trust—and in no other.
“Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed” (John 20:29).