In my weekly Works & Wonders column, I combine a brief devotional with other interesting and uplifting bits and pieces I gleaned throughout the week. I hope you enjoy this week’s collection! It includes:
- Day & Night, Sand & Water
- Viking Christians
- The Best Wedding Vows
- Magnified Sand
- Knockoffs
- A Giant “Chicken or Egg” Problem
1.
A
Day & Night, Sand & Water
We tend to learn new things by drawing comparisons to things with which we are already familiar. If we want to explain what an e-book is, we might first describe a printed book, then distinguish it from the electronic equivalent. If we are asked to describe Diet Pepsi, we might tell how it is different from regular Pepsi or from Diet Coke. Thus, new knowledge tends to be derived from existing knowledge. Our temptation when attempting to better understand God is to begin with ourselves, then to tell how God is different from us. And while this can be helpful, it reverses the proper order, for it is we who are the derived beings. God is not just more than a human being and not just a bigger and better version of humanity. Rather, God is a being of a completely different order and one who is utterly unique from all else that is. Though God shares some of his attributes with us, his being is as different from ours as day is from night and sand is from water. As usual, Tozer says it well: “God exists in himself and of himself. His being he owes to no one. His substance is indivisible. He has no parts but is single in his unitary being.”
2.
Viking Christians: The Day Valhalla Died
My friend Stephen (whom you may remember as the videographer who traveled the world with me for my Epic project) was recently in Norway to learn about Viking Christians. He filmed a great little 6-minute documentary about it.
3.
The Best Wedding Vows
I very much agree with Michael Jensen on the best wedding vows. As far as I can see, no one and nothing has ever surpassed the traditional Anglican ones. Jensen begins with Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce and then says this:
With 1000 celebrity guests at Madison Square Garden, that’s exactly what it was – which doesn’t mean it was insincere.
It was an extreme example of everything the modern wedding has become: a performance of authenticity. Everything must say us: the venue, the playlist, the hashtag, the doilies on the tables – and even the vows.
I am all for couples making beautiful public declarations to one another. But a vow isn’t a personalised act of self-expression. A vow is an act of self-binding.
4.
Magnified Sand
So this is kind of neat, and yet another instance of exploring and delighting in the microscopic world. Magnified Sand is exactly what it sounds like: A site that shares images of magnified sand from across the world. The photos are beautiful in their own way, and the sands are all so different from one another. It amazes me that God puts such care and such beauty into even the smallest parts of his creation.
5.
Amazon, Without the Knockoffs
I’m sure you’ve noticed that Amazon is stuffed full of knockoff versions of legitimate brands. When you search for something, you often need to scroll way down the page to find something that isn’t a fly-by-night brand. I’ve heard it said that because of all the knockoffs and promoted products, the best fit for the average search is typically the 17th item on the page.
The Knockoff extension for Chrome is meant to fix a part of the problem. “Knockoff filters the trademark-squat pseudo-brands (the SZHLUXes and HORUSDYs) out of your search results, so what’s left is brands with a reputation to lose.” I was looking for a flooring cutter the other day, and this is what it did for me:
6.
A Giant “Chicken or Egg” Problem
I always enjoy videos like this one that show the incredible and irreducible complexity of different parts of the human body. It “exposes a massive biological ‘chicken-and-egg’ paradox: oxygen doesn’t dissolve well in water, meaning we require a complex protein called hemoglobin to carry it. However, regulating hemoglobin requires specialized kidney cells emitting erythropoietin, and building hemoglobin requires iron—a substance so toxic that the liver must carefully throttle its intake using a hormone called hepcidin. If any single piece of these interlocking feedback loops is missing, the entire system fails, resulting in instant death.” You would almost think that it didn’t evolve, but was carefully designed. 🤔
