A friend, returning to the States gave me a little cordless screwdriver with its own set of bits. It sat on my tool room shelf untouched for nearly a year. The other day, I picked it up and found that all the bits were red with rust. I’d heard that vinegar was a good anti-oxidizer, so I tossed the bits into an old tin can and soaked them over night. It really does work. A little gentle scrubbing and the rust was gone.
Standing at the kitchen sink, with bits and a Brillo pad, I gazed out the window at the uncut grass. Things grow way too quickly in Panama. I began musing about the myriad mundane matters necessary to keep my little corner of the universe from total entropy. I’m not talking thermodynamically … I’m talking definition “B” from Merriam-Webster: “a process of degradation or running down or a trend to disorder.”
Mow the lawn, get a haircut, do the dishes, wash the clothes, brush your teeth, pay the internet bill, shave, change the oil, trim your eyebrows … and your ears … now that’s a scary sign of entropy! Leave any of those tasks undone for long and things get chaotic. Amid my musings, I wondered what all goes into keeping THE universe from collapsing.
Did you know our universe is managed? The book of Job 38 contains a beautiful passage extoling God’s moment by moment involvement in the minutia of creation, even down to helping the lion find prey. The same is declared in Psalm 135:6-7 … and dozens of other places in the Old Testament. In Matthew 10, Jesus claimed that his Father knows how many hairs are on each human head (never a static number) and when any small bird falls from the sky.
Amazingly, this same detailed involvement is attributed to our Savior. Colossians 1:16-17 says of Jesus, “all things were created by Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.” Likewise Hebrew 1:2-3 speaking of Jesus is the one whom God “appointed heir of all things, and through whom He made the universe. The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His being, sustaining all things by His powerful word.” These texts speak of Christ’s active maintenance of the created order. The beginning of all things … and the continuing of all things are credited equally to God the Father and God the Son … “for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live.” 1 Corinthians 8:6
