Thought for Today
John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being 4 in him was life, and the life was the light of all people.
Matthew 16:2 "When it is evening, you say, 'It will be fair weather, for the sky is red.' 3 And in the morning, 'It will be stormy today, for the sky is red and threatening.' You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times.
Sunday evening, yesterday and again this morning, I heard essentially the same weather forecast for this coming weekend. Evidently, we will either have a sunny, bright and cold weekend, or, we will have the potential for a nor’easter and a heavy snowfall. That is, it will either be a nice weekend or a terrible weekend.
My baccalaureate was in Mechanical Engineering, with a concentration in thermodynamics, the study of the transfer and/or transformation of thermal energy. I learned about barometric pressures, about atmospheric saturation, about dew points and most of the other phenomena affecting our weather. I understand the enormous complexity of weather. I have read about the various ocean currents, the jet stream, the impact of El Nino and La Nina. I even have some idea about the various mathematical models and algorithms used in weather forecasting. But, it does not take a college degree in anything to tell me that our weather this weekend with either be good or it will not.
One of the results of that baccalaureate training is that I tend to view the world around me as a closed-loop system. And, when I ponder on Creation, all that our Creator God created, I tend to consider that also from a systemic point of view. I always come away in awe of what God has created. The amazing complexity of life and of the universe overwhelms me. No wonder meteorology sometimes seems to come down to the flip of a coin! Such considerations always leave me with the psalmist’s question, “Psalm 8:3 When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established; 4 what are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them? 5 Yet you have made them a little lower than God, and crowned them with glory and honor.”
Yesterday, I wrote about epiphanies. The psalmist seems to have had an epiphany when viewing God’s Creation. Believer or non-believer, Christian or atheist, it is inarguable that the universe is an amazing, complex thing. Galaxies, stars, suns, moons and planets. Cosmic gas clouds, meteors and comets. All of it dancing to some unheard music. Dark energy, dark matter, gravity, electro-magnetic forces all interwoven in an overarching balance. Irrespective of whether one believes in Genesis or in some initial particle spontaneously exploding in the Big Bang, we live in a very complex universe.
I personally believe that science and the Bible are compatible. One addresses the question of how, the other the issues of who and why. One deals with mechanics, the other with intentions and meanings. Physics and metaphysics. My baccalaureate with the mechanics, my seminary degree with the meanings and intentions.
I am still left with that question of the psalmists. The only answer I personally find is “For God so loved the world.” The author of the gospel of John seems to have found the reason behind it all. We find that idea especially in the epistle 1John, e.g., “4:8 Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love.”
Irrespective of how it all began, Big Bang or Genesis 1:1, Creation is a very big place. Creation is a very complex place. Humanity is a relatively small entity, existing (as far as we now know) on an insignificant, remote planet. Yet, Christians have had that epiphany, the realization that the Creator of Creation is “mindful of them” and cares for them. Why? Because “God so loved the world.” Because, “God is love.”
Clear, blue skies or nor’easter blizzard this coming weekend, all I can say about it all is, “Thank you God. Thank you for being God. Thank you for love.”
Stay safe, be thankful to God, trust God,
Pastor Ray