Mercy in Cosmic Camouflage: Providence At Work

Even for a weathered cattleman, watching cows forage on a countryside greensward would normally not evoke an awareness of God’s merciful love – unless that stockman stopped to marvel at the fact that God must have had the animal-to-land ratio in mind when he created grasses. Why?

Because practically all grasses unlike most vegetation, grow from the base, rather than from the tip. Thus, grasses survive and continue to grow after animals graze so that the same grassland can be grazed again later. God’s Word hints at this ecological wonder: “[T]heir pasture lands shall be for their cattle for their livestock, and for all their animals” (Numbers 35:3). Thus “he will bless…your grain,….the increase of your cattle and the issue of your flock” (Deuteronomy 7:13).

Providence simply means “providing.” It is God’s fatherly concern providing for his creation and ultimately for the welfare and survival of us, his cherished children – humankind at large. “For you love all things that exist, and detest none of the things that you have made…[H]ow would anything not called forth by you have been preserved? You spare all things, for they are yours, O Lord” (Wisdom 11:24-26).

Such compassionate, providential concern is one tiny aspect of God’s omnipresent, merciful love for us. Providence is one of many forgotten aspects of his awesome mercy. To attempt to list and explain in detail even a tiny fraction of the cosmic outreaches of this loving Providence would be like trying to recount the fascinating genealogical history of every person listed in the Manhattan phone directory.

But consider for a moment a random choice: Everyone knows that hot air rises and cold air tends to sink. But knows that hot air rises and cold air tends to sink. But God made another set of rules for water. As it freezes, its molecules form a crystalline structure, which is an expanded (hence less dense) form. Thus, the ice floats.

Without this reversal of the usual temperature pattern, frozen lakes would never thaw, and the oceans would become solid ice, with all marine life mummified forever. Without the Earth’s life-sustaining hydrologic cycle (see Genesis 1:6-7), life as we know it would be impossible.

In designing the atomic components of water and their special molecular-level interaction, God’s providence was already fashioning everything, lovingly, for our welfare. “The LORD is good to all, and his compassion is over all that he has made” (Psalm 145:9). This passage portrays the “positive” aspect of God’s mercy, operating from the moment of the creation of the universe. This is another dimension of his goodness beyond his offer of sin-erasure.

At each step of creation “God saw that it was good” (Genesis 1:4, 12 18, 21, 25, 31).  It was good in itself by manifesting his glory and power, but it was good also for us in providing for the sustaining of our existence. His personal goodness behind all this is his altruistic concern for us, his creatures. Such “loving-kindness” (to use biblical verbiage), in the most momentous act of creating the universe, is one of the least heralded and yet most awesome aspects of the Creator’s Divine Mercy. In contemplating this vast creation, the macrocosm from the perspective of an astronomer or the microcosm from the perspective of a microbiologist, one can’t help but be overwhelmed by the wonders of nature.