In the first part of August Julia and I took a tour of the Galapagos’ Islands 500 miles off the coast of Ecuador. A twenty-nine-year-old man from England visited some of the same islands over 190 years earlier. His visit set in motion a whole new way of looking at the world and how it came into being. I am speaking of Charles Darwin and the conception of the Theory of Evolution.
We saw the same wonderful wildlife that he did but had a completely different perspective. We saw first-hand the wonders of God’s creation preserved in a unique environment for the most part untouched by human hands. These were not creatures that “evolved” over time and “adapted” to their environment as we were told, but rather were creatures created by God to live in this unique environment. We saw the same animal species that Darwin saw 200 years earlier.
After almost two weeks exploring the islands, we left Ecuador and flew to Peru to explore another civilization of the Quechuas, the native people of Chile and Peru known today as the Incas. We took a train ride out of the city of Cuzco to the “Lost City of the Incas” – Machu Picchu which means “Old Mountain”. These ancient ruins were accidentally discovered by an American explorer named Hiram Bingham in 1911. High up in the Andes Mountains (9000 feet), he discovered an ancient civilization probably built around 1410 at the height of the Inca Empire. Many historians believe it was built as a retreat center for the Inca (the king) and his extended family and as a place of worship to their Sun god and other deities important to their religion.
We ended our visit with a brief, one-day tour of the capital of Peru, Lima. You cannot visit any country in Latin America without visiting her beautiful cathedrals built by the Spaniards during the colonial era. Their grandeur was breathtaking with high arching ceilings covered with beautiful mosaics, gold plated alters and of course numerous crucifixes and statues of Mary, Joseph and other saints of the Catholic church through the ages. Every church we visited in both Ecuador and Peru was magnificent and extravagant especially in comparison to the poverty just outside these churches.
All these places and peoples had one thing in common – a deep longing for meaning and purpose in life. They all: Darwin, the ancient Incas, the Spanish explorers and even the Jesuit priests who came with them were searching for the answer to this ultimate question in life, “What’s it all about?”
Years ago, Burt Bacharach and Hal David wrote a song that answered (at least in part) this question. Dionne Warwick made it a number one hit in 1966, “What’s it all about, Alfie?”
Here are some of the lyrics:
What’s it all about, Alfie?
Is it just for the moment we live?
…Are we meant to take more than we give?
Or are we meant to be kind?
As sure as I believe there’s a heaven above, Alfie
I know there’s something much more
Something even non-believers can believe in.
I believe in love, Alfie
Without true love we just exist, Alfie
Until you find the love you’ve missed, you’re nothing, Alfie
When you walk, let your heart lead the way
And you’ll find love any day, Alfie.
Jesus said it best when He said, “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). And Paul confirmed this when he wrote, “God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8). That, my friend, is what true love is all about! Jesus followed that statement on love with these words, “You are my friends if you do what I command” (Jn.15:14). So, live in peace and in the assurance that you are truly loved by God in Christ Jesus, your best friend forever.