Thought for Today
Exodus 26:30 Then you shall erect the tabernacle according to the plan for it that you were shown on the mountain.
Isaiah 14:26 This is the plan that is planned concerning the whole earth; and this is the hand that is stretched out over all the nations.
Acts 2:23 this man, handed over to you according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of those outside the law.
Ephesians 1:9 he has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ, 10 as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.
ICE FLOATS! Every so often, I am reminded that ice floats and am once again amazed by God’s attention to detail. One of the most unique concepts of Judaism and Christianity is our realization that our Creator God has a plan. Unlike the Greek and Roman gods who seemed only to interact with people in a capricious and/or malicious manner, our God has a plan for our welfare. It is obviously a very detailed plan.
We often describe God as omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent. God is all of that and more. How often do we stop to think of the implications of all those omnis? Omni means ‘all.’ The God we know and worship is all-everything.
My first career dealt with the planning and execution of large capital improvement projects. I was involved in multi-billion-dollar projects. I can attest that the spending of other people’s money requires an amazing amount of planning.
Even on a much smaller scale, anyone who has ever participated in building their own home knows the amount of planning required: the detailed specifications; the decisions required about every little item; color selections; material selections; etc. Attention must be paid to making decisions on time, to scheduling all of the materials to be received in the proper sequence, to schedule the various crafts involved, to having the proper permits in place to allow the work to proceed and to also have the proper inspections done in sequence to allow construction to proceed.
Think on that for a few minutes, and then go read Genesis chapters 1 – 3. I always wonder, did God make all God’s plans before Genesis 1:1; or, was our omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent God able to do it all ‘on the fly’ simply by saying, “Let there be?” Either way, God’s attention to detail is incredible!
Think about ice. All matter can exist in 3 different states: gas, liquid, solid. With only 1 exception (as far as I know), the gaseous state is always the lightest, followed by the liquid and then the solid states. For water, however, the solid state is lighter . . . thus, ICE FLOATS. God’s attention to detail guarantees that the ice cubes in my tea float instead of sinking to the bottom. Think of the implications for our world were that not the case! Rivers would freeze from the bottom up. The polar icecaps would be at the bottom, not at the top.
We know that our world experiences a cycle of the seasons. That cycle produces the incredible variety of plant and animal life on our world. God paid attention to the tilt of the earth’s axis, the rotation of the planet, and the planet’s orbit around our sun . . . just so that I can have fresh blueberries on my morning cereal.
Earth scientists tell us about the earth’s core, the nucleus around which our planet formed. Earth’s core is liquid under intense pressure and at very high temperatures. We sometimes witness this in the eruption of a volcano. Not all planets have liquid cores. Not all planets rotate around an axis tilted to the plane of the ecliptic. Not all planets rotate at a speed that allows a cycle of night and day. God pays attention to details.
When we experience the cycle of the seasons, we are struck by both the detail planning it demonstrates as well as the dependability of that cycle. Irrespective of whether you are a farmer, banker, or even clergy, life revolves around the very careful planning of our Creator God.
Some of God’s children look at Creation and are so overwhelmed by it that they deny the very existence of God. They look to science and mathematics to explain life and Creation. Newspapers, magazines and newscasts talk excitedly about God’s being dead, about ‘God particles’ and other intellectual fads. They cannot accept the simple explanation presented in those first 3 chapters of Genesis, “And God said, ‘Let there be . . .’”
Despite all the denials, despite all the disbelief, irrespective of all the alternatives suggesting otherwise, God’s plan, God’s details still prevail, and . . . ICE STILL FLOATS!
Stay safe, thank God, trust God,
Pastor Ray