Two kinds of design

Spring is, if not everyone's favorite time of year (some, like my wife and I, like Fall even more), is at least a popular one with, I'm guessing, almost every person. The whole "winter's over" mood is a great thing in itself; to say nothing of flowers and other flowering plants. The magnolia trees, lilac bushes and other blossoming things around Omaha and other cities can only be enjoyed in the Spring.

And seeing all this as one drives through the city makes an interesting contrast between two kinds of creation by design. You have all the varying expressions of God's design on one hand; His use of color and structure, animated and still life, and all of it continually reproducing or, in the case of non-living things, to preserve itself according to the power He gave each living thing to do so.

On the other hand, you have man's handiwork of design, instantly recognizable in its contrasting style. Whereas God constructs His creation by means of life processes and other means that produce the "natural" look, humans can only make use of things God made. This makes for a great difference; one which we should marvel at, even as Paul said, "His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made." (Romans 1:20). And, as God's nature is meant to be "clearly seen" through His creation, men are pronounced by Paul as being "without excuse" when they fail to recognize and honor God for His creative work.

So you have two kinds of design: one dynamic, always moving and changing, the other static, able only to decline and deteriorate, never grow from within. You have one that follows the principles of life, and so grows in sometimes unpredictable ways, like the evergreen tree above, growing around the rock it took root by. You have another design, man's, that must follow rules of "what works" in fashioning the finished product. And when some of men's designs follow a more dynamic principle, such as using heat or pressure to modify the shape of something, they are using a force available to them in what was already created by God.

No wonder a poet once spoke of being unable to see a "thing as lovely as a tree." The trees of Spring, and every other season, give evidence of a grander scheme of design than anything mankind can duplicate, because man can only make use of living things, not create or sustain them. How is it then, that some can look at human design and praise its creators, while they look at God's far greater design and call it "natural selection" or "survival of the fittest"? If they cannot see the hand of God in His designs, it's no wonder then that they can't see the wisdom and glory of God in His Word. Maybe they need to spend more time looking at trees.