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:
- Wonderful Paradoxes
- Just As He Said
- Stone Wall Trees
- Play the 101
- Spiral Embryos
- Saved By Grace
1.
Wonderful Paradoxes
The Bible is full of wonderful paradoxes, statements that seem to contradict one another, but that actually highlight the fact that God’s wisdom is so very different from our own. Hence, we learn that humility is the way to greatness, that riches are the way to poverty, that a cross is the way to a crown of glory. God’s providence often leads in directions that seem surprising, discomforting, even agonizing. Yet this should not shock us. God’s wisdom is much higher than our own, so his methods are also much different from our own. “My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:8-9).
God thinks higher thoughts, exercises deeper wisdom, and acts with greater intentionality. He knows how to bring about his great and glorious purposes, and it falls to us to trust, submit, and await the time when the full picture will be revealed. Here’s how Francis Raworth once expressed some of this: “Providence is usually exercised in contraries; it is the divine method to humble, that He may exalt; to kill, that He may make alive; to bring light out of darkness and hell out of heaven.”
2.
Just As He Said
Emu Music is an Australian music ministry that loves to get the church singing about Christ and to do so in obedience to Colossians 3:16-17. The new EP, Just As He Said, does exactly that. I’ve queued up this playlist to the first song, but it should play them all. If you prefer a different app, it should be available on all of the major ones.
3.
Stone Wall Trees
What is a stone wall tree, you ask? Just that—a tree that grows out of a wall. Though rare in most of the world, they are fairly common in Hong Kong. “These remarkable trees first appeared during the colonial era when thousands of stone retaining walls were built to stabilize Hong Kong’s steep hillsides. Over time, seeds carried by birds and wind became lodged in cracks between the granite blocks. Dust, decaying leaves, and moisture accumulated in these crevices, creating tiny pockets of soil where the seeds could germinate.”
As you’ll see from the photos, there is a strange beauty to them, perhaps because of the coming together of the natural and man-made world. Amusing Planet has an article and gallery: Hong Kong’s Stone Wall Trees.
4.
Play the 101
This is quirky and strangely delightful. The 101 is a busy highway that cuts through Los Angeles. The 101 Plays Itself turns every car that crosses a line into a note. This means that the music you hear is being made in real time by drivers who have no idea they are doing it. You can change the instruments to try some different sounds. Like I said, quirky but delightful, not to mention creative and unique.
5.
Spiral Embryos
Today I learned that snake embryos form in spirals. It makes sense, I suppose, since “some snakes can have more than 400 vertebrae in their backbone, and so, laying the foundation for those bone segments in a small egg requires some clever biological engineering. The coiling solves the problem of how to fit a very long animal in such a restricted space.” I have a bit of a snake phobia, but still found this brief article fascinating and the photos strangely beautiful: Why Snake Embryos Form in Spirals.
6.
Saved By Grace
It’s okay if I double up on music this week, right (and Australian music, at that)? Commons Worship, sometimes stylized as CXMMXNS, is a relatively new partnership between Ben Fielding and Reuben Morgan, who have written a lot of modern worship songs. More recently, though, they have been focusing on writing music that is stronger lyrically and more suited to congregational worship. Their latest song is Saved By Grace, and they co-wrote it with Jonny and Rich of CityAlight fame. Give it a listen, as I think you’ll enjoy it. (If you would prefer a live version to a studio version, I will grant your wish.)
