July 25: CDs, Windows, and the glory of God

2 Chronicles 14:1-16:14

Romans 9:1-21

Psalm 19:1-14

Proverbs 20:1

The heavens declare the glory of God;

   the skies proclaim the work of his hands.

Day after day they pour forth speech;

   night after night they reveal knowledge.  

I have an old CD (kids reading this, ask your parents what that is) that I still really like.  I play it, but there comes a point when the player is no longer able to read the information.  It fails to comprehend the data that I know is on the disk.  It reminds me of old computers (Windows 2000, anyone?) that would hang when you tried to install and run software too advanced for it.  It also reminds me of how my mind behaves when I try to comprehend the greatness of God's creation.  I look at the sky, and I see the sun, the moon, maybe the stars if it is night time - and then I try to imagine the billions of stars beyond those I can see, the planets circling them...and my mind shuts down.  I just can't.  

The same thing happens when I try to approach the question a different way, to understand how the world works.  Have you ever thought of that?  The sun provides the energy to the plants that feed on carbon dioxide and exude oxygen that we breathe and exhale carbon dioxide and the water rains down from the sky but then winds up evaporated again into the sky so the rain cycles down and the moon creates the tides and the revolution around the sun creates the seasons and...click.  There it went again.  My mind just shut down.

And then I think: God created all this...did creation end when the universe was put in place and set into motion?  And I wonder how it could, and cannot help but think that, having willed everything into existence and having willed the establishment of the rules by which everything exists, God has to continue to sustain this existence. Otherwise, we would have had the seeds of existence in ourselves all along.  So each and every moment, God has to command that everything continue to exist, the way fuel has to continue to flow for the engine to keep running, the way current has to continue to pass through the bulb to keep the light shining.  Shut off the current, the bulb goes dark.  Were God to withdraw His will, I suspect we would revert back into the nothingness from which we came.  

This is our God, on Whom we depend not just for our creation, but for our continued existence.  The commands of the Lord "are radiant, giving light to the eyes."  And in this context, as difficult as it is to comprehend, He and His decrees are most certainly "more precious than gold, than much pure gold".  This is the God whom Asa and Judah sought eagerly, and was found by them.  This is the Lord that could, and did, give "them rest on every side".  I look forward to the day we get to know Him fully, without the mental overload.