Richard G. McNeill, Jr., 32°
Northern Arizona University, P.O. Box 5638, Flagstaff, Arizona 86011
Richard.McNeill@nau.edu

God's eternal power and deity continue to unfold through
Nature, both visible and invisible.

In the Fourteenth Degree, The Perfect Elu, the Orator gives the newly obligated Brother his final instruction: "For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. Ever since the creation of the world His invisible Nature namely, His eternal power and deity, has been clearly perceived in the things that have been made. Understand that knowledge of God is of His invisible Nature revealed to us through the created order of the natural world."

The invisible Creator is revealed to us through His creation, Nature. Reflecting on Nature reveals God to us. This is the message of the Degree, as I perceive it in the following personal reflection.

Bang! And it was a big one. Occurring approximately 14.5 billion years ago and beginning with a single condensed point, the cosmic explosion expanded the single entity of God throughout the universe. All life, matter, and energy became an expanded form of a single Being-God. Nature, as we see it, is a reflection of God.

Over time the initial explosion began to slow. Universal matter began to reconverge and gather together. First gases formed clusters of matter, and then these clusters formed stars, stars become galaxies, galaxies developed into solar systems, and then to life.

In the ancient world, the seven planets comprised the known universe while mankind speculated on the unknown. In every age, the galactic horizon has been explored and simultaneously reveals more facts and theories about Nature while also expanding our certainty of the existence of unknown mysteries.

Less than a century ago, astronomers knew only about our own galaxy, the Milky Way, which they believed held about 100 million stars. On October 6, 1923, astronomer Edwin Hubble discovered the first galaxy beyond our own, the Andromeda. Scientists now believe that the Milky Way contains more than 100 billion stars and that there are some 100 billion galaxies in the universe, each harboring enormous numbers of stars. We on Earth orbit a single star, our Sun, swirling in a sea of stars in a suburb of our galaxy.

Astronomers have not yet fully understood the mystery. They know that ten percent of the universe is made up of what they call "ordinary matter." They also know of another 90% they call "dark matter." What is the purpose and source of this dark matter? God's eternal power and deity continue to unfold through Nature, both visible and invisible. Throughout time, God reveals and God conceals leaving it to his children to marvel in awe and reverence.

We are all part of the same body of the original condensed point-God. We can sense the invisible Nature of God through observations of the heavens and everything around us. And we can see, if we pause long enough to reflect, God's presence in our fellow creatures. We are all part of the First Being.

Richard G. McNeill, Jr. is a Perpetual Member of Flagstaff Lodge No. 7 where he is serving in the officer chairs and has founded an "Initiate Discussion Group" which meets with new Masons for the purpose of education and membership retention. A 32° Mason, he actively participates in several of the Degrees in the Scottish Rite Valley of Tucson, Arizona. Dr. McNeill is a professor at Northern Arizona University where he teaches and researches sales and marketing.