Finding God in the Little Things

Little Thing #12: Chicken Feed

noreply@blogger.com (Gerald Nanninga) — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 22:43:00 +0000

The best proof of I know for God is the chicken egg. Nutrition-wise, it is one of the best single source food products one can find. Versatility-wise, you can eat an egg in so many ways--boiled, fried, and baked. And it goes well with so many other foods.

And it is so convenient. You don't have to kill anything, butcher anything, or skin anything. You just have to pick it up. And you can get more every day.

Scientists say the shape of the chicken egg is one of the sturdiest possible designs for a thin shell. Did the chicken dream-up the physics behind that shape? And how does the chicken get that shell around the egg as it plops into the nest. That is a miracle.

To paraphrase Shirley Temple, when asked why she thinks her chicken is so special, says, "My chicken can lay an egg. Can you?"

And the chicken does it all by only using the raw material of chicken feed. Imagine if we humans had to invent something as nutritious, versitile and sturdy as an egg. I'm sure it would cost a fortune--not chicken feed.

Yes, only a loving God could invent the chicken egg.

Little Thing #11: Liquid Heat

noreply@blogger.com (Gerald Nanninga) — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 02:18:00 +0000

In many climates, there are times of the year when it can get fairly cold. If we were not able to create artificial heat, we would freeze. And even if you live in a warmer climate, all areas tend to get dark. So finding ways to heat and light the environment are very important.

What is amazing to me is that many of the substances God has provided to create heat and light have the quality of lower than average freezing points. Things like heating oil, kerosene, gasoline, whale oil, and so on stay liquid (or refuse to become rock solid) at relatively cold temperatures--typically at far lower temperatures than water-based liquids.

Liquids tend to work better in heating and illuminating devices, like furnaces or lamps. As a liquid, they can travel up a wick, which is a more controlled way to create the heat and light. Liquids can be poured on other substances (like charcoal) and absorbed, making them better at providing heat. It is easier to control the rate of consumption of these highly combustable substances in a liquid form.

Imagine how hard it would be to run a car if gasoline froze at warm temperatures. Heating devices would be fairly worthless if you had to first heat up the device before you could use their fuel.

It is so wonderful that God designed combustable fuels to have low freezing points. Life would be so much more difficult otherwise. The master chemist does it again.

Snow is Super

noreply@blogger.com (Gerald Nanninga) — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 01:34:00 +0000

In the wintertime, it is difficult for the animals in the wild to find water. The ground is hard and the lakes and rivers are frozen. In our earlier, more rugged days, we humans would have been without water as well.

Water is essential to life, so not having water in the winter would not do. Therefore, God performed a miracle. He created a unique way for water to get cold without turning into ice. We call it snow. Snow is a wonderful, unique structure that lies on the ground in such a way that the animals and us can just scoop it up and eat it.

But God didn't stop there. Not only is snow functionally unique and wonderful...it is a work of art. Every snowflake is a special and beautiful design. Together, they are a blanket of beauty.

Unique function and unique beauty. Only God has the love and the power to do that.

Spit is Special

noreply@blogger.com (Gerald Nanninga) — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 22:42:00 +0000

Our saliva was designed to help begin the process of breaking down the food we eat. The same chemical that helps saliva break down food can be used as spit to help break down organic compounds in cleaning.

A little "spit and polish" really works because of what is in the spit.

God was so generous to give of a cleaning agent that can go with us wherever we are and be ready at a moment's notice to tackle the the problem. And it's free, too. And it doesn't imvolve a lot of harsh chemicals that can hurt the environment. That is so God.

Little Thing #8: Parts Per Million

noreply@blogger.com (Gerald Nanninga) — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 22:43:00 +0000

My wife used to work in the lab of a hospital, where she would do lots of tests. A common task was to test blood samples for the presence of certain chemicals.

As she would tell me, the difference between being in perfect health and in being near death could often be due to a very small difference in the amount of some chemical in your bloodstream--as little as a few parts per million.

Wow! When you think about how we abuse our bodies--eating poorly, not exercising or not getting enough sleep (or other things even worse)--its a wonder that we all don't just keel over and die on the spot.

But even though God designed these bodies to be fine-tuned machines with very small tolerances for chemical deviation, he also designed them to be able to adapt to less than perfect living and still live within those tolerances. That is a pretty remarkable thing.

Only a great God could create such a great wonder as that. So next time you eat a Twinkie, thank God that he built a body that can tolerate it and still live within its chemical tolerances.

Little Thing #7: Thunder Storms

noreply@blogger.com (Gerald Nanninga) — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 23:01:00 +0000

Due to the way God designed the science of Meteorology, heavy storms are most likely to occur at night. It has to do with the temperature change to cooler at night.

What makes this so wonderful is that God knows we need the rain. He also knows that we have productive things to do in the day that could be impared by rain. Therefore, God sees to it that the majority of the rain occurs at night, when it is least likely to upset our plans. That way, we get the best of both worlds--productive days and renewing nights (both for us and for the earth).

Litttle Thing #6: Little Factories

noreply@blogger.com (Gerald Nanninga) — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 17:38:00 +0000

For the basic needs of food, clothing and shelter, God provided a lot of little factories. For clothing, He made little wool factories (called sheep), little cotton factories (called cotton plants), and little leather factories (various animals). For shelter, he gave us lumber factories (called trees). For food, God made all kinds of factories (plants, fruit or nut-bearing trees, animals)

It is amazing when you compare God's factories with the factories of man. For synthetic fibers, mankind has made huge factories which deal in toxic chemicals and put a lot of crap into the atmosphere. For synthetic house materials, we again have created some of the most toxic chemicals known to man.

Many people are alergic to some of these synthetic fibers and household materials, but very few are alergic to the products of God's little factories--cotton and wood.

God's little factories are pretty much self-sustaining and don't leave much of a carbon footprint. Some, like trees, actually improve the air quality. They practically run themselves, and very efficiently I may say.

It all goes to show the superiority of God in his factory creation and the love of God in his giving them to us.

Little Thing #5: Middle Initial

noreply@blogger.com (Gerald Nanninga) — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 01:23:00 +0000

When I was a teen, I used to listen to a funny DJ on the radio. He liked to make fun of a person he called "Bozo T. Clown." So you didn't know that Bozo had a middle initial? According to this DJ, he does. The "T" stands for "The," as in Bozo THE Clown.

Well, in actuality, "Clown" is not Bozo's last name. Clown is a description of what Bozo is--a clown.

The same is true for Jesus. Christ is not his last name. It is a description of what Jesus is--the Christ, the Messiah.

In my mind, I often think of Jesus as "Jesus T. Christ." I want to remember that little middle initial. Because when I think of that initial, it reminds me that this is not just anyone, but Jesus THE Christ. I also like the little pause it makes between Jesus and Christ, so that I have to focus more of the Christ Character in his name.

Little Thing #4: Ice

noreply@blogger.com (Gerald Nanninga) — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 12:08:00 +0000

When most chemnicals move from gas to liquid to solid, the molecules come closer together. The substance becomes more dense.

This is not true of water. When water moves from liquid to solid, the molecules move further apart. Solid ice is less dense than liquid water.

Why is this important? Because it is less dense, ice floats on the surface of liquid water. However, if ice acted like normal chemicals, it would form on the bottom.

As a result, if ice had been normal, it would form every winter on the bottom of lakes. It would kill or engulf the plant life on the bottom of the lakes. Without the plant life in the lakes, you would kill off most of the animal life in the lakes.

To prevent all of this death and destruction, God created water in such a unique way that it would not behave like most other chemicals. It is another example of his great love and great concern for his creation.

The Senses

noreply@blogger.com (Gerald Nanninga) — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 22:21:00 +0000

God has given us 5 senses: Sight, hearing, touch, taste and smell. What is remarkable to me is that some of these senses are passive and some are active.

By active, I mean we can actively control the use of that sense. For example, with sight, I can control what I look at, what I do not want to look at, and I can even shut my eyes and not look at anything.

Passive senses are just the opposite. With hearing, I hear everything, whether I want to or not...and I cannot turn it off.

The beauty is that both are special in their own way. Active senses give us the power to control what we are doing. We can focus on the task at hand and perform it more efficiently. Imagine trying to drive a car if you could not control what you were looking at.

Conversely, the passive senses let us help protect us from the unknown--the things we did not think to focus on. For example, if I were asleep in a burning house, I would be quite greatful that my hearing would passively sense the sound of the smoke detector, or my nose would smell the smoke, and I would awaken and get to safety.

So some senses help us to focus while others help to make us aware when we need to change our focus. What a brilliant set of tools God has given us.

And better yet, God did not stop with just giving us a beautifully efficient functioning sensory system. He also packed it with pleasure. Just think how wonderful it is to taste delicious food, to caress someone we love, to listen to beautiful music. God didn't have to do that. But he loved us enough that he provided all that pleasure along with the functionality.

God must enjoy the senses as well. He asks us to worship him with a joyful noise and a fragrant offering. He asks us to taste the bread and the cup. Just imagine how much greater the sensory power of God must be over ours. That's gonna be some wonderful worship in heaven.

Electrical Poles

noreply@blogger.com (Gerald Nanninga) — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 23:40:00 +0000

I was once listening to a radio interview with an inventor. The man being interviewed didn't like being labeled an inventor. Instead, he prefered to be called a discoverer.

The reason? He believed that God invented everything before the beginning of time and just allowed us humans to discover them when God felt the time was appropriate.

This got me thinking. God invented electricity, but waited thousands of years before letting us discover it. God knew that we would need a means to efficiently transport that electricity. Therefore, long before He gave us electricity, He gave us a way to efficiently transport it--trees.

Trees make excellent electrical poles. They are tall, straight, sturdy, and abundant. Best of all, trees do not conduct electricity. This is incredible, given the fact that the majority of living things do conduct electricity. God made an exception with trees, because he knew they would be needed later for holding those wires. How's that for long-range planning!

Also, God knew that birds would be attracted to those wires carried by the tree poles, so in His love He made bird feet to not conduct electricity, either.

If God can prepare trees well in advance for electricity, just think of all the other details he prepares in advance for people.

Aquifers

noreply@blogger.com (Gerald Nanninga) — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 00:28:00 +0000

Water is the most essential nutrient of life and God found a simple, but clever way to get it to us--via Aquifers. Aquifers are underground bodies of water. It is so simple, but pure genius.

The water is clean and drinkable because it has been filtered through the dirt. Think of it...God uses dirt to make water clean.

By putting the water underground, there are many advantages:

1) It stays cool in the summer and won't freeze in the winter.
2) It won't waste away via evaporation (as it would if exposed to the sun).
3) It gets water near us without having to build a lot of bridges to cross over it.
4) It's protected from a lot of surface polutants.
5) The water is there all the time, not just when it rains.
6) In the old days, the wells also provided a place for people to meet--encouraging social interaction.

Genesis 7:11 would seem to imply that before Noah and the flood, all the water came from these underground sources. It was a part of God's original creative design.

Compare God's simplicty to all of the complexity we use to store up and move water--big dams, leaky plumbing, massive purification plants and so on. God knows we need water, and he put it right under our feet--close, yet protected. What a God!