Hebrews 11:3, as brief as it may be, anchors us in one of the most pivotal truths about our faith and the world we inhabit. It begins with faith—not evidence, not reason, not sight—but faith. And from there, it leads us to a staggering assertion: that everything we now behold was summoned into being by the sheer word of God. He spoke, and it came to be. Not fashioned from visible materials, but brought forth from what was unseen.

By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible. — Hebrews 11:3 (BSB)

This reality turns many of our human assumptions on their heads. We often believe that seeing is believing. But the author of Hebrews points in a different direction entirely. Faith precedes understanding. Faith leads to a right comprehension of the world, not the other way around. It’s not that we see, and therefore believe; it’s that we believe, and thus understand.

This touches every aspect of life.

When you look up at the stars at night or watch the morning light breaking over the hills, you’re witnessing the result of God’s word. That same word that called light out of darkness in Genesis 1 still reverberates in the created order. The visible world is a testimony to the invisible God. And our grasp of this truth comes not through microscopes or telescopes, but through trust—trust in the God who reveals Himself.

Hebrews 11, often called the “hall of faith,” begins by defining faith as “the assurance of what we hope for and the certainty of what we do not see” (v. 1). Verse 3 flows naturally from that foundation. It’s not merely that the universe was made by God, but that it was made in such a way that no physical trace of its origin could be detected—so that our understanding would rest not on human observation but divine revelation.

And so we must ask ourselves: does our faith shape our understanding of the world, or do we still demand that everything be verified by sight? Are we more confident in what we can touch, measure, and predict—or in the One who created all these things out of nothing?

The Bible never asks us to take a blind leap into darkness. Rather, it calls us to place our trust in the One who is light itself. When God speaks, things happen. And by His word, the cosmos was birthed. This is the unseen foundation that undergirds everything we know. Faith receives that truth, not as fantasy, but as the most real thing in the world.

What does Hebrews 11:3 say to you today? How might it reframe the way you view your circumstances, your doubts, or your daily walk with Christ?

For further meditation: Psalm 33:6 – “By the word of the LORD the heavens were made, and all the stars by the breath of His mouth.” Romans 4:17 – “…the God who gives life to the dead and calls into being what does not yet exist.”