How many are your works, O Lord!
In wisdom you made them all;
The earth is full of your creatures.
Psalm 104:24

The Christian worldview has its foundation in the Bible’s Old Testament, beginning with the creation story and then the judgments of the Fall, the curse, the Flood, and the confusion of languages at Babel.  From that point on to the end of the testament, we see the worldview fleshed out in the story of the chosen people, which includes multiple promises of a coming redemption—a redemption spoken of by the prophet Isaiah as incorporating the entire natural world.  No wonder the Psalms are full of references to the natural world—the apex being the “Creation Psalm”: 104.  [Read it online here.] In it you will likely detect the following features about the creation by which every person who has ever lived could have and can detect what Paul calls God’s “invisible qualities”: His “eternal power” and “divine nature.”

Virtually endless variety. Science has  a word for nature’s great variety: biodiversity [2010 has been designated as the International Year of Biodiversity] And for virtually every variant, scientists offer supposed practical values. Male cardinals are brilliant red and more striking than the dull orange females in order to get the female’s attention for mating. So why do male and female blue jays look the same? The males of some species are larger than the females—in order that they can protect the females. So why are females of some species larger than the males? Some insect species are brilliant colored—in order to attract attention. So why are other insect species dull in color to keep from attracting attention? Recently I heard a scientist say that biologists once thought they knew why a certain animal did a particular thing, but new observations have forced the conclusion, “We don’t have a clue why it does it!” That was a refreshing admission to hear. Might we not be justified in concluding that the endless variety in nature is just another aspect of God’s boundless creativity? The amazing variety within creation caused J. B. S. Haldane, a famous evolutionist, to say that “God has an inordinate fondness for beetles” (over 350,000 variants identified so far!).

Profound mystery. Light, matter, energy, and life remain inscrutable to mankind. But those are not the only mysteries that surround us in the natural world. At my back as I write this is a pot with a philodendron vine that has existed indoors for years. It was rooted from a plant owned by a cousin whose body is now in the grave, but whose soul is now in the Creator’s care. Christine’s humble charge is now mine, but this most common of domesticated trailing plants still causes me to marvel. Its vines grow about a foot each month by taking artificial light, carbon dioxide, and water to create its solid material structure: photosynthesis. It still amazes me. All around us are similar mysteries: birds that were never carpenters’ apprentices but know how to construct intricate nests; fireflies that turn organic matter into flashlights; wasps that make paper; spiders that spin nature’s strongest fibers; fish that spend their entire adult lives at sea only to return over thousands of miles to the very creek that spawned their existence. We may well be able to dissect their anatomies and describe their life processes, but we remain mystified about the how and why of their marvelous existence.

DNA structure

Abiding orderliness and unfailing regularity. Secular scientists often speak of apparent randomness and disorder in nature; yet for science even to exist, the creation must be mostly predictable. Researchers cherish its orderliness and regularity while at the same time admit that the source of such order and regularity is beyond their understanding. If planetary motions and gravity, for instance, were not orderly and regular, life would not exist. There is such order and regularity in the entire creation that even mathematicians who acknowledge no God often speculate that mathematical laws are eternal and are the ultimate cause of the cosmos. One theoretical mathematician, in fact, calls the mathematical principles in nature “beautiful”—a term this numbers-challenged writer never uses in reference to math! To call nature’s orderliness beautiful is an implicit confession of belief in a Creator—a human heart resonating with the heart of God.