Is it not true that most bad ideas are good ideas that took a wrong turn? That the thing pursued by the idea is a good thing, but the directions are off? Consider our desire, born right out of God’s dominion mandate, to understand the design of God’s universe. The scientific revolution was kickstarted by Christians desiring to think God’s thoughts after Him. From there it’s a hop, skip and a jump to penicillin, vacuum cleaners and the camera, tape recorder, stereo system, library, weather station, flashlight, arcade, telephone we carry around in our pockets.
Woot. All of this built on the truth that God is a God of order who has ordered the universe. The danger comes when we take the truth that God has ordered His world and we embrace some form of deism, the idea that the universe is a well-oiled clock that God wound up that He now passively watches, from a distance. What fools we are to take the glory of His design and use it to deny the wonder of His presence.
Even when we reject the deist ideology we often embrace the spirit of deism. We may affirm that God is near, but act like He is distant. We feel alone. We see the world as an inexorably unwinding clock whose constant tick tick tick drowns out our prayers such that the Clockmaker doesn’t hear them.
But of course He does. And of course He is both the Designer, and near. He has both ordained all things that will come to pass before all time and ordained that He would be the One who brings it all to pass. That He has written the story of history is the assurance, not the denial that He has written Himself into the story. Which means we need to change our thinking, to break free from the modernist perspective that sees Him in the distance. We’re to see Him in the closeness, in the every day.
Each bit of falling snow isn’t the inevitable result of two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom sharing electrons when the mercury drops below 32 degrees. Rather each flake is God’s handmade intricate sculpture, a cascade of His immeasurable fullness, sent to us from His storehouse for our good and His glory (Job 38:22). The descent of each flake isn’t the intersection of force vectors driven by the relative masses of the sun and its satellite on which we stand, Earth. Rather it is a dance, led by the wind, the Pneuma of God.
Though our Father is wonderful, we have lost our capacity for wonder. Though He, out of His fullness, faithfully feeds us, we have leanness in our souls. We take in the bland fuel carbs and proteins and amino acids, while He is blessing us with sweet, savory, the fatness of the marrow and His very presence at the Table.
His world is less a clock, a machine for measuring time, more a snow globe, a toy that brings delight to us inside and He who shakes it. Lord, open our eyes that we might see Your glory. Open our mouths that we might taste and see that you are good, and sing your praises.