“If you could have the answer to any ‘why’ question, what would you ask?”
At one a.m. on a flight somewhere over the midwest, my seatmate wrestled with the question I asked. Our conversation about his college senior thesis design project had revealed his passion for discovering why and how things worked, from aerospace engineering to snowstorms.
Finally, he responded, “I think I would just like to know why it all began, you know? Like… how everything started, how it all happened at the beginning.”
He went on to explain how he had looked into some explanations of the origin of life but he wasn’t entirely sold on the Big Bang Theory. I smiled at how the complexity of life was convincing him that there might be a creator instead of just chaos. We talked about the intricacy of the human body, as he had done an internship in engineering heart valve replacements.
“There’s just too much design, isn’t there?” I picked up the book that originally prompted our conversation, the Private Pilot Oral Exam Guide. The chapter on weather had intrigued him, since he was taking a meteorology class. “Even in weather, you can see the order in the cycles and predictability.”
“Right,” he agreed. “It just doesn’t make sense.”
“It’s like your project,” I referenced the work he was doing to optimize the impeller design of military helicopters. “Things don’t naturally become more advanced in design, someone has to create and improve them. Isn’t there a law of thermodynamics about that?”
“Yeah, I don’t remember which one though.” We both knew the principle, how systems become more disordered over time and it takes intentional effort to keep entropy from increasing.
Our conversation continued and I mentioned what I believed to be the answer to his question: a Creator, who spoke all things into existence. With his next layover being eight hours, I suggested the first couple chapters of the Bible as reading that might answer some of his questions.
Another passage of Scripture I wish I had recommended was the last part of Job. In all our discussion about the evidence of design in the world around us, we kept coming back to the topic of weather.
In training to be a pilot, extensive study is done on weather. Cold and warm fronts, the changes in wind direction and velocity, and temperature and humidity can have dramatic effects on how airplanes perform. There are varieties of charts ranging from predicting the clouds at different altitudes to the high and low pressure systems across the country.
Fascinatingly enough, despite all the projections and forecasts from the most advanced technology and satellites, there is still no way to control the weather or perfectly predict what the future holds. While the changing weather sometimes seems chaotic and destructive, there are still patterns that are evidence of a designer. Before radars and satellites ever existed, Scripture detailed the direction of cold northern winds and the building of storms from the south (Job 37:9). Even as meteorology advances, more questions arise and leave scientists wondering exactly how the atmosphere works.
Weather is a continual testimony to the sovereignty of God, displaying His hand at work in the rhythms of seasonal cycles and the consistent forces that direct the winds. Seen in the way that temperature and pressure seek to find their balances, God is working restoration in His creation.
In Job 36-37, Elihu uses weather as a reminder of the greatness of God:
“Behold, God is exalted, and we do not know Him; the number of His years is unsearchable. For He draws up the drops of water, they distill rain from the mist, which the clouds pour down, they drip upon man abundantly. Can anyone understand the spreading of the clouds, the thundering of His pavilion?” – Job 36:24-29 NASB
From the first years in school, the water cycle is taught: evaporation, condensation, precipitation. Simple enough for children and yet so complex that the details will never be fully grasped. According to Job 37:11-13, God directs this rain according to His plan – sometimes for renewal of the earth and sometimes for rebuke:
“Also with moisture He loads the thick cloud; He disperses the cloud of His lightning. It changes direction, turning around by His guidance, that it may do whatever He commands it on the face of the inhabited earth. Whether for correction, or for His world, or for lovingkindness, He causes it to happen.”
It is impossible to ignore the power of thunderstorms and tornadoes, the stunning artistry of sunsets and sunrises, the intensity of heat and cold, the intricacy and layers of clouds. Man comes face-to-face with the limitations of his understanding, control, and technology when faced with the same questions God asked Job: Have you ever in your life commanded the morning, and caused the dawn to know its place? Have you entered the storehouses of the snow or have you seen the storehouses of the hail? Where is the way that the light is divided, or the east wind scattered on the earth? Has the rain a father? Or who has begotten the drops of dew?
As we observe the changes in seasons with spring emerging out of winter, as light and darkness begin to ebb and flow with the time change and the longer days, may we be reminded of the great things that we cannot comprehend. Let us join Job as Elihu exhorts, “Listen to this, stand and consider the wonders of God… God thunders with His voice wondrously, doing great things which we cannot comprehend.” (Job 37:14, 5)
With the rhythms of the rising of the sun and the moon, in the cycles of the storms and the seasons, the distinct design of God’s creation is on display for all the world to see. In the limited knowledge we have of the coming weather and in the subsequent experience of the beautiful and terrifying winds and rain, we ought to stand in wonder of the power of God. Daily we are reminded of the sovereignty and greatness of God! As the famous hymn by Stuart Hine declares:
O Lord, my God, when I in awesome wonder
Consider all the world Thy hands have made,
I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder,
Thy pow’r thro’out the universe displayed.
Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to Thee;
How great Thou art! How great Thou art!
Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to Thee;
How great Thou art! How great Thou art!
Written by NBB Alumna:
