Is God the Landlord in the Sky?

God, if you believe in him, has rarely been known to intervene in human affairs outside of the biblical time-scale however that shouldn’t mean he doesn’t have great plans for us. Having created us in the first place, he must surely have given us a destiny to fulfil. Perhaps he's working behind the scenes to help put this into practice. The world didn't end in 2012 and the human race still has a chance to continue on into the future.

Recent years have witnessed more than their fair share of end of the world predictions or doomsday scenarios and according to a recent poll twelve per cent of Americans believed the world would end in 2012. Gullible people worldwide were alarmed by the cataclysmic associations with that particular year irrespective of race, religion and country of residence. Many turned to religion and appealed to God when it had never occurred to them before. Others lost direction and turned to crime. End of the world predictions often cause the gullible to do things out of character thus there were many court cases over people doing irrational things throughout 2012

'Well, I robbed a bank because I thought the world was due to end next week.’

Yeah, right.

God was very likely laughing at humanity because of the ‘2012 phenomenon’ as it became widely known. To him, 2012 was just a year like any other and was of no consequence since a year is only a man-made measurement of time pertaining to this planet. We calculate the passage of time in years because of earth’s annual journey around the sun but in God’s realm, this may have no significance.

If God created the world to begin with, then it’s entirely up to him when he wants it to end. He's revealed no specific date for the end of the world and why should he? God has nothing to do with the Mayan calendar - which again is a man-made measurement of time - or any doomsday prophecies of man’s own invention that were focused on 2012. It was clearly not a year that was earmarked for any divine intervention into human affairs.

God is the ultimate landlord and if he wants to evict us - that’s it; our tenancy can be terminated at any time with no notice or reason, whenever he sees fit.

In 2012 God was still busy creating; he is very good at it and has been doing it for at least thirteen billion years - 2012 included - and he'll continue to create whether we're part of the equation or not. If you can't comprehend this concept then just take an hour or so of your valuable time to go on a fantastic cosmic journey to discover the realm of God.

There are new worlds in creation swirling around distant stars and there were other far-flung worlds with life cycles long since expired. Everything in nature lives and dies, from the largest star to the smallest microbe. If God has created all this, then we'd better begin to appreciate our place in the cosmos. The universe can be ours to discover and offers endless possibilities – if we survive as a species long enough.

We are indeed a privileged generation to be able to view God at work this very minute. With the help of the Hubble Space Telescope and others like it, we have the means to map the known universe in all its majestic glory whereas our great- grandparents were only able to see black and white photos of exotic lands on the other side of the globe.

Stars lived for billions of years and died so that life on this planet could exist. The very same carbon in your body was once at the heart of a star; not in our own star which we call the sun but in a star that lived and died billions of years before our own solar system came into existence. That’s what God’s creation is all about and not only has it taken him a long time but even now it's still a work in progress. We should appreciate this more in our daily lives. When we look up at the sun, moon and stars we should feel elated to be part of God’s ongoing creation and if you don't believe in God then you should still be in awe of it all and appreciate your part in the great scheme of things.

We should be glad we've arrived at a point when humanity still has time to make the right decisions to control our own destiny and to continue the stewardship of this planet indefinitely.

God may have endowed mankind with creative abilities but the destructive element in our personalities often cancels this out. If you want to become more like God, then be creative, not destructive - it’s as simple as that.

God could be creating another world just like ours this very minute just in case we mess up or he might be preparing a whole new planet for better tenants who will prove to be more grateful than we are. He might have a contingency plan just like everyone else.

We were trusted with the preservation of this planet, but being fruitful and multiplying and replenishing the earth is a world away from desecrating it, depleting its resources and bringing into existence children we can't afford to feed, clothe or educate.

Do we really expect God to intervene and save us from a worldwide apocalypse when we continue to be the authors of our own destruction? Why does every army declare God is on their side and why do we expect him to sort out our petty squabbles with our neighbours like some long-suffering landlord when he has the finer workings of the universe to contend with?

We should really be able to deal with problems on this planet for ourselves rather than expect God to save us from a doomsday of our own invention.

Since we're God’s only known creation to possess free will and who have the capacity to reason, he must surely be keeping a watchful eye on us even though he chooses not to intervene. He is the landlord in the sky and the choice is ours to be good tenants who can be creative and thrive or be destructive and die.

God would want us to emulate him and be creative and it follows that he must want us to use scientific discovery and technology for the common good of mankind. Everything we have invented already occurs in nature. God will know the possible paths our future holds.

Now in the twenty-first century, we can make collective choices that will shape our future or destroy it. Whatever our differences we all live on the same rock, breathe the same air and have red blood.

We have the technology to harness the power of the sun and we can abuse it and obliterate ourselves in a nuclear holocaust or we can use it as an ultimate source of power for heat, light and transportation. Everything can be used for good or bad so it's down to us to choose the right path so that future generations can enjoy a better existence and even embark on a real cosmic journey to discover more than this small corner of the universe.

And we must know that God would be proud of us if we made the right choice and one day reached the stars from whence we came.