Rev. 1:9, Isa. 40:26, 2 Cor. 5:17, Col. 1:17, Rev. 4:11, John 19:16-30.

 “You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and by Your will they exist and were created” (Revelation 4:11, NKJV).

 It’s easy to take things for granted, particularly things that we have always known or experienced. How easy, for instance, for young children to take their parents for granted, whom they have known all their short lives? How easy for us, too, to take for granted the sun, the sky, the air, or the ground beneath our feet.

 However, have you ever stopped to think how much we take existence itself for granted? That is, how often do we stop and ask the famous philosophical question, Why is there something instead of nothing?

 Why does our universe itself, and all the majesty and grandeur and astonishing things in it, exist to begin with? What great logical contradiction would occur were our universe, and we in it, not here? According to the latest scientific theory (they tend to change), our universe once did not exist. In other words, ours is a contingent existence, and it’s a miracle that we are here at all. And despite all sorts of myths about the universe arising from absolutely nothing, or from some kind of mathematical equation, our universe exists because God, the Creator, has made it and everything in it.

 Study this week’s lesson to prepare for Sabbath, May 13.