Divine Architect

“The Lord by wisdom founded the earth;

By understanding He established the heavens.”
(Proverbs 3:19)

Have you ever bought something new and tried to assemble it? Chances are, if you’re like me, often those pieces don’t always seem to fit as snug and sturdy as I remember the store display being. Or, what do you do with the three bolts left over? “Did I forget something?” I’ve asked myself more than once. “Oh well, it looks fine to me. At least it’s standing…” “It’s only leaning a little to the right.” “The wheel does seem to be wobbling a little bit, but I think it’s okay.” Any of these sound familiar? Sometimes the extra pieces turn out to be a little more significant than others and before long the whole thing falls apart.

Imagine if you had been contracted by God to design and assemble the universe, or perhaps just little ole Earth. Consider the following intricacies of the planet we live on.
If the earth were as small as the moon, the power of gravity would be too weak to retain sufficient atmosphere for man’s needs; but if it were as large as Jupiter, Saturn, or Uranus, extreme gravitation would make human movement almost impossible.

If we were as near to the sun as Venus, the heat would be unbearable; if we were as far away as Mars, we would experience snow and ice every night even in the warmest regions. If the oceans were half their present dimensions, we would receive only one-fourth the rainfall we do now. If they were one-eighth larger, our annual precipitation would increase fourfold, and this earth would become a vast, uninhabitable swamp!

Water solidifies at 32 degrees above zero. It would be disastrous if the oceans were subject to that law, however, for then the amount of thawing in the polar regions would not balance out, and ice would accumulate throughout the centuries! To prevent such a catastrophe, the Lord put salt in the sea to alter its freezing point![i]

The earth moves in at least SIX different ways, and yet we on earth are not dizzy. The movements are:

(1) The earth spins on its axis, like a top, at the speed of one-third mile per second or 1,000 miles per hour. If it were 100 miles per hour, the earth would alternately freeze and burn.

(2) It weaves slowly back and forth on its axis, tilting to an angle of 23 degrees, then swinging slowly back, twice a year. This gives us our seasons.

(3) The earth with the moon is swinging around the sun, once a year at the rate of 18½ miles per second. And it never varies 1/10,000th of a second on this annual trip.

(4) The sun, with all its planets, is on a trip, rushing northward at 12 miles per second.

(5) The nearby stars, with our planetary system, are revolving at 180 miles per second around the Milky Way’s center.

(6) The Milky Way, our galaxy, with all its millions of stars, is on a tremendous journey, plunging through space at terrific speed. Who knows where?[ii]

God guides and controls them all.



Reflect

What was the last thing you tried to put together or assemble? Were there any pieces left over? When you were done, did you ask yourself something to the effect of “something’s not quite right…what is it?”?



Take a few moments and think of various features built into the Earth, its atmosphere, seasons, etc. Meditate on some of the intricate features listed above.



“There is for me powerful evidence that there is something going on behind it all… It seems as though somebody has fine-tuned nature’s numbers to make the Universe… The impression of design is overwhelming.”
PAUL DAVIESThe Cosmic Blueprint

[i] Tan, P. L. 1996, c1979.
[ii] Tan, P. L. 1996, c1979.