Thursday, April 18, 2013

Divine Gravity




I was watching the NOVA series Fabric of the Cosmos. Yeah, I know. Geek alert! 


But as I watched, trying to wrap my mind around the physics concepts, I realized something I hadn’t considered before. Everything in creation has a reason. In fact, everything not only exists for a reason, it exists for a purpose. 

Everything in creation is a reflection of God’s attributes. 

Gravity has always perplexed me. How and why did it come to be? You and I are stuck to the earth because of gravity. If we traveled to the moon, we would be able to jump higher and farther because gravity on the moon is 1/6 of that on earth. If we keep expanding that paradigm we know that the earth’s gravitational pull causes the moon to circle it. If we go even bigger, we see that our star, the sun, keeps the earth on its purpose as well. 

But try explaining gravity to a child. You can’t feel it, taste it, see it, smell it, or hear it. One might be tempted to say how can you explain something you can’t see? Something that you can’t feel? You might as well try and explain the idea of love at that point…

Okay. Why not? 

What is love? It’s an emotion, something you feel inside. You can’t see it, taste it, smell it, touch it, or hear it. In the end, it’s not much different than gravity, is it? Heck, it even maintains the same qualities as gravity. It is an invisible pull or attraction to something or someone else. The only difference between gravity and love is that love defies all understanding. 

My mother’s love for my children defies many natural laws. My heart aches when theirs does, it rejoices when they do. Every emotion is mirrored between mother and child. There is no doubt that I would fight to the death for any one of them. Without hesitation. Without regret. With reckless abandon. Where did this love come from? 

1 John 4:8 says, “…God is love.”

I’ve known that love in my life, no doubt. But what really blew my mind was when I ran across this verse:
“For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. Ever since the creation of the world his invisible nature, namely, his eternal power and deity, has been clearly perceived in the things that have been made.” Romans 1:19-20

So gravity is an attribute of God. It is certainly invisible in nature. So how does gravity reflect God? It’s simple, 1 John 4:8. God is love. 

When you feel that attraction for another, for a pet, for nature—that’s God’s call to you. It’s His gravitation pull on you. You can’t see it, but you feel it…in your soul. Your soul is your beacon. It’s your GPS. It’s why you automatically know right from wrong. 

Your soul is why you have the inkling that there is something bigger than you out there. And why you long for that something bigger, no matter how good you have it here on earth. A psalm of David speaks clearly about that longing:

“O God, you are my God whom I seek; for you my flesh pines and my soul thirsts.” Psalm 63:1

And when we let go and we let God’s gravity pull us, the universe makes sense. We are able to feel loved and to love. We are able to comprehend something that we cannot see.

In those times that we believe we are not good enough for that Divine Gravity, we need to remember that God loves us like a mother. Without hesitation. Without regret. With only reckless abandon. He fought to the death for us. 

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son…” (John 3:16)

Nothing is bigger or better than Divine Gravity.






Gravity and I have a lot in common.