The perpetual debate between those who believe in evolution and those who believe in creation by intelligent design ignores one simple answer that satisfies both sides.

Evolution could simply be one of the tools that God used to perfect His creations in an ongoing process. If we examine our existence through that lens, we might recognize the signs.

Take your hand, for instance – five fingers, each a different length, each capable of maneuvering in multiple ways. You have an opposable thumb which enables you to grip things that would be difficult if not impossible otherwise.  The nearly unlimited variations of finger positions and independent actions allow humans to invent and play musical instruments, perform delicate surgeries, and communicate without verbal cues.

Those same miraculous fingers allow humans to invent, build and use tools to create and construct ever more complex devices and structures.

Okay. Other creatures have five digits on their paws or hands. How does that fit in the creation/evolution debate?

No contest.

If we consider the possibility that God used evolution as a tool to build His ultimate human creation, it is a reasonable consideration that those five digits were part of the earliest stages of creating animal life. Once that foundation was established, God may have used His tool of evolution to enhance and perfect His final design. It is reasonable to assume that the evolution of what would become the human hand was part of the process toward intelligent and capable humanity.

Turn the page. Type the words. Dial the phone. Hold the tool. Pet the dog. Bait the hook. Twist the cap. Sign your name. Summon the waiter.

The infinite number of uses for those five talented digits is incomprehensible.  While five digits are common in the animal kingdom, only humans have developed the range of skills that separate us from other animal life forms.

Evolution? Yes, but evolution as part of the complex process of creating the most versatile life form on planet earth.

When we truly contemplate how the human hand and those remarkable fingers have contributed to the rise of human civilization, it’s hard to see it as just an accident. The case for intelligent design wins – hands down.

The history of humanity is a history of perpetual puzzle-solving.

Who are we? Why do we exist? Where do we come from? Where are we going?

And those are the more profound questions. Before we even get that far, we are on a continual quest to understand the world we live in, and the mechanics of that world.

The questions are so complex and inter-connected that we have broken them down into sub-categories, each with its own group of specialists that labor to answer their portion of the grander question.

We have chemists who research the interactions of chemical compounds and how to best apply them to human life. We have doctors and biologists who work to understand how human and animal life functions and how to correct malfunctions. Physicists struggle to understand the mysterious forces that govern our world and beyond. Astronomers peer into the heavens, looking for answers to the secrets of the universe.

All of these disciplines, and many more, strive to solve the myriad of questions about our existence and the existence of the universe itself. All of them focus their efforts on their specialty.

None of them even begin to grasp the totality of the grander question – a question so profound and complex that it defies description. It is a question so complex that it can only be considered by breaking it down into those various components.

That grander question cannot be answered in human terms because it involves concepts, energies, and forces outside human experience. It also involves the incredibly complex interaction of all the elements, known and unknown.

Imagine a huge jigsaw puzzle that requires all the pieces to fit in a precise pattern in order to complete the picture. Imagine further that each piece was, in itself, a complete picture of its subject. Imagine that each piece required adjacent pieces to “cooperate” in the fitting process.

Now imagine the process of assembling the puzzle to require eons of time and effort. Imagine that there is always a search for that critical missing piece.

That might begin to describe the human efforts to understand our existence and the existence of all that we experience. It also provides a glimpse into the mind of God and His gift to all of humanity – the gift of perpetual hunger to understand.

Hollywood would have us believe that God speaks with a thundering voice, and some passages in the Bible describe God’s voice as “majestic,” “powerful,” or “like the sound of many waters.”

But, the Bible quotes were from so long ago, we can’t help but wonder – does God speak to us today? Other than in the movies, why don’t we hear the thundering voice of the Almighty today?

We have become so accustomed to the extravaganza of Hollywood productions that we may have become tone-deaf to the true voice of God. Perhaps the truth about God’s voice is that it is subtle and echoes in our subconscious.

Perhaps the truth is that we are so overwhelmed by the “noise” of our modern existence that we have become deaf to the subtle, powerful voice of God. Perhaps god speaks to us in the language of our emotions.

Perhaps God whispers.

Is it possible that God speaks to us all the time, but we don’t hear because we expect to hear words, but God speaks to us in His own language?

When we feel that twinge of sorrow when we see the lifeless form of the deer or squirrel that didn’t quite make it across the road, is that the voice of God reminding us of the value of innocent life?

When we yield to temptation and steal a sample from the bulk bin at the grocery store but then feel guilty, is that God’s voice echoing through our heads?

When we shed a tear witnessing someone else’s pain or grief, is that God’s voice expressing love?

It’s easy to fall into the trap of expecting God’s voice to be something we can hear, because that’s what we have been led to believe. Perhaps it is more likely that God speaks a language of emotion. Perhaps God’s voice is heard in the emotions we feel when we stray or follow the path which has been defined for us in the messages of the Bible.

Perhaps God speaks to us daily, we have only to listen to the messages we feel rather than hear.

There is no doubt that there are con-artists who take advantage of human desire to believe in a spiritual realm where those who have died continue to exist and watch over those of us still living.  Likewise, there is no doubt that there are those among us who are desperate to experience a connection with the other side, desperate for a message of comfort.

Contrast that with the fact that the Bible is filled with stories of those who claim to have a special connection with the spirit realm,. Yet, when we are confronted with contemporary prophets or mediums, we are skeptical.

We are confronted with two opposing realities.

Over the course of centuries, the prophets of the Bible have become accepted because – well, because it is in the Bible, so it must be true. Few of us have paused to consider that those who recorded these biblical tales might have had their own agenda. Perhaps some of these tales were exaggerated or distorted to prove a point. Perhaps the subject of some of these stories had their own type of profit in mind.

When we are exposed to tales of contemporary psychics or mediums, we tend to immediately assume that there is fraudulent intent. In today’s culture, we have become aware of too many con artists who go to great lengths to capitalize on desperate human emotions. So, we immediately assume those people are faking it. We are immediately skeptical.

So, why do we accept at face value, the tales from the Bible, while, at the same time, instinctively reject contemporary psychics or mediums?

While healthy skepticism protects us from being deceived, it might also prevent us from receiving legitimate messages from the realm beyond our earthly existence.

It is another reality that there are people who demonstrate that they have a special talent or ability. There are those who have a photographic memory that allows them to recall specific details of a particular date in history, up to and including the weather on that date. There are those who can perform complex mathematical calculations without the use of a computer or calculator. There are those who can create lifelike illustrations with a brush and paints and those who can compose soul-stirring music.

In many of these cases, those with these special abilities are using the same tools or skill sets that are available to us all, yet they are able to multiply their effectiveness beyond what most of us are capable of doing.

The Bible, and the stories in the Bible are undoubtedly inspired. But the Bible is not the whole story of our existence. It does not reveal the secrets of chemistry, biology, or physics. Those secrets have been revealed over time by humans with enhanced abilities.

The fact is – there is more to our existence than most of us are capable of witnessing on our own. Those with that special gift of seeing beyond our earthly reality have now, and in the past, helped us see the greater reality.

Perhaps we need to be more open to today’s psychics and mediums. Critical and skeptical – yes. But, when the messages they provide are clothed in love and hope, when the provider has little or nothing to gain from relating these messages, perhaps we need to be prepared to incorporate these experiences into our blended belief system.

It is probably one of the more common human traits – the desire to have more – more wealth, more love, more pleasure. And the list goes on. Another common human trait is the tendency to be blind to the abundance of blessings we already have.

Perhaps that is because those blessings are hidden in plain sight.

There is so much in our existence that we take for granted. The air that we breathe is a perfect mix of gases that seem perfectly blended to meet our needs. The clouds that float above us and bring life-giving rain to nourish our crops. The perfectly timed rotation of our planet that keeps our environment from getting too hot or too cold. The tilt of the earth and the orbit around the sun that produces the seasons which renews and refresh our environment annually.

Along the way, we have become indifferent to the miracles of our world that are critical to our existence while, at the same time, we exploit those miracles for our benefit. We plant food crops without a thought about the miracle of photosynthesis that powers the growth of those crops. We build our homes from wood that came into being via that same process as trees reach for the sun. We exploit the properties of metallic elements to build skyscrapers and cars.

From our first breath at birth to our first conscious thought when we awake in the morning, we experience the full spectrum of miracles that define our existence, day after day.

And day after day we strive for more without a moment’s thought about how much we already have. Day after day we fail to appreciate those hidden miracles, miracles hidden in plain sight.

More importantly, we fail to recognize the proof inherent in those miracles – proof of that higher power we call God, proof of the incomprehensible complexity of our very existence.

When we marvel at the sight of a beautiful sunset or the majesty of a mountain range, when we thrill to the music of a birdsong or the stirring notes of a marching band, when we inhale the tempting aroma of freshly baked pastries, we are indulging in the potpourri of blessings our Creator has provided. Still, we yearn and pray for more.

If we were capable of recognizing and appreciating all these blessings, we would be awed by all those blessings that fill our lives. We would be filled with joy.

If we reflect on the variety of human states, we might question – what about those who cannot appreciate some of those blessings? What about those blind from birth, what about those who cannot hear, or those who cannot walk or talk?  What blessing do they experience?

Perhaps those who have been denied the joy of our earthly blessings are more fortunate than we realize. Perhaps they will experience joy more intensly than our own when they transition into a heavenly realm where all they have been denied is suddenly and infinitely available to them, when all those hidden blessings are revealed in all their glory.