Science Class

All this work on the farm lately has gotten me to thinking about the science of modern day agriculture . . . and of what science must have been like in Jesus' day. On the other hand, how would you have liked to have been in science class with Jesus? How hard must that have been? What science project could you have done that would have competed with Jesus doing, "The Hydroponic Dimensions of Dividing the Red Sea", or "The Case for Elongated Necks: Defending the Creation of the Giraffe", or maybe the ever popular, "Redefining Life in Light of Death's Defeat in Resurrection: Lazarus, An Ongoing Project"? And we are so proud of ourselves when we genetically modify a seed to make it drought resistant. Who is it that has power over the drought and the rain? You got it, the kid in the back of the class whose mother thinks He is a prodigy: Jesus. And, what kind of a 'Teacher's Pet' do you think He was . . . inviting the instructor home for dinner just to show how sight can be restored to a blind man by mixing spit and dirt together and rolling it up in your hand and pressing it into his eye sockets?

Just where do scientists believe the very art of their discipline originated? While they are arguing over Big Bang and Evolution, God is at work designing and birthing a star. While they are patting themselves on the back for the creation and launching of a telescope that can 'see' beyond our galaxy, God births skill and surgical giftedness which affords the blind to see and the deaf to hear. While scientists balance the genetic arguments of cloning, God is at work making millions of originals which each are uniquely distinctive.

What is hard core, test and proof, scientific study and research to humanity today is, to God, yesterday's considerations. Science is humanity's way of beginning to approach the 'how' of God's 'been there and done that'. Science is our avenue to understanding, not an end in itself, which might explain why one of my favorite "Far Side" comics is that of God as a scientific 'chef', with the world in a sauce pan and a beaker posed in God's hand, ready to pour into the pan an ingredient which is labeled, 'Jerks', and the caption reads, "Just to make it interesting." The trick, I think, is in being an observer to the process and not the ingredient in the beaker.

Science on the farm today begins with a humble appreciation of the One who gives the soil, the rain, the sunshine, and the seed. 'Hard Science' is rooted in the awe of knowing that anything we might conceive of doing to 'improve' the genetics, messes with the intent of the original and, as scientific theory holds, 'For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.'

I am grateful for all that science does in advancing food sources, medicines, and life itself, I just pray that we do not get so caught up in being God that we forget who God dynamically continues to be . . . and the equal and opposite reaction to our actions destroy the good which has been achieved. Thus, the best personal quality any scientist might hope to embody is that of the One who is the original Scientist: humility. Humility says, "Good" when looking over all creation at its' completion. So when will 'Good' ever be good enough for us? God only knows.

In all that is God's science for you, I remain

Your servant in Christ,

Pastor Don