God Of Wonders
Mom and I get tickled watching for our ponds in the middle of the country, when we go visit my uncle. All of the ponds are the size of a basketball court or smaller but they seem to bring joy to the pond owners. One of the piers goes halfway across the pond and has a big beautiful gazebo. A smaller ponds overlooks a pasture full of cattle. The entrance to the modest pier has two palm trees! Personally, I do not think palm trees belong here, let alone, in the country with cattle but that is their resort! And my favorite small pond has a pier complete with a boat house on the side with a john boat on a lift and docked behind that is a ! pontoon boat!! At slowest speed, they can go around the pond in less than four minutes! I think what tickles me about these ponds is that I can relate. I can totally get that the pier is a great place to be in creation.
I think most of us are aware of God's existence through creation. To be able to watch how God made everything suitable for life to exist and develop on earth is a testimony to the existence of a Creator. Romans 1: 20, "For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse." Maybe that is why I am so drawn to the vast ocean. It is another physical reminder of my Creator.
Earth is the only planet in our solar system that can sustain life as we know it. Not surprisingly, we are the right distance from the sun so that we get exactly the right amount of heat to sustain life. The planets from Mars to Pluto are too cold to support life as we know it. There is no evidence of life existing on these other planets.
Not surprisingly, if the rotation of our earth had been 1/10 its present rate, the length of our days and nights would have been increased ten times. Vegetation would burn up during the long days. The nights would be s cold that if a plant survived the day they would freeze at night!
I sometimes just get amazed thinking about our earth just hanging in space. The physical size of the earth is JUST RIGHT to support life as we know it. I recently learned on an astronomy website that if "the earth were as small as the moon, its gravity would only be 1/6 its present force and unable to hold either atmosphere or water. If its diameter were doubled, the force of gravity would be doubled and the atmosphere would be so compressed that its pressure would be increased from 15 to 30 pounds per square inch. This would seriously affect all life. If our earth were increased to the size of the sun, while retaining its present density, gravity would be increased some 150 times. This would increase atmospheric pressure to over a ton per square inch. Life would be virtually impossible under such conditions."
And this blows my mind. "If the earth's crust had been only ten feet thicker, the metallic elements in the crust would have combined with all the free oxygen in the atmosphere, ruling out the possibility of all animal life. On the other hand, if the oceans were merely a few feet deeper, they would absorb so much carbon dioxide from the air that plants could not exist." I mean these are not big differences - then feet thicker and a few feet deeper! Genesis 1: 9, " "And God said, ;Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear.' And it was so."
"The moon is about 239,000 miles away from earth. If it were only 50,000 miles away the tides, which are now harmless, would completely submerge the continents twice a day.
Though the moon is only relatively close to earth, its surface temperature varies each fifteen lunar days from a high of 214 degrees Fahrenheit above zero, to a low of 243 degrees Fahrenheit below zero!" I cannot even fathom that!
"The composition of the atmosphere is about 78 parts nitrogen and 21 parts oxygen. Too much nitrogen in the atmosphere would slow down all functions of the body so that death would finally result. Too much oxygen would also be harmful since it would increase the activities of the body to such a pace that life could not last that long." The article goes on to say that most accidents in chemistry result in explosions so it is highly unlikely that this could have been an accident! Nitrogen is the basic ingredient of almost every explosive!
"The earth is tilted on its axis 23 1/2 degrees. This tilting, plus the revolution around the sun, gives us our seasons. In most parts of the earth this not only gives ample time to raise the necessary supply of food, but it provides a season in which the soil lies idle, soaks up moisture, and increases its own fertility." Genesis 1: 11, "Then God said, 'Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds.' And it was so."
"The atmosphere of the earth serves a protective blanket to shield us from deadly radiation. If the radiation reached the earth, it would be impossible for humankind to exist. In addition, our atmosphere is just dense enough to protect the earth from some twenty million meteors that enter it daily. These meteors, which travel at speeds of about thirty miles per second, would otherwise strike the earth with such impact that all life would be endangered."
A lot of this information is over my head but I know that this was not happenstance! Our Creator made everything JUST RIGHT for life to exist on earth! God reveals Himself in the smallest atoms to the largest galaxies! New meaning is given to "His eternal power and divine nature"! Deuteronomy 10: 14, "To the Lord your God belong the heavens, even the highest heavens, the earth and everything in it."