All Things

All things were made and came into existence through Him; and without Him was not even one thing made that has come into being. John 1:3

I wonder how often we recognize that God made all things. This verse is specifically talking about Jesus being the author of all things because John is making the point that Jesus is God and was not a created being. He is part of the Trinity that has always been and always will be. He was as deeply involved in the creation process as one could get.

Does this affect the way we see Jesus? This was John's intent. Jesus is God. He has been here from the beginning (v.1) and is Lord, Light, and Life. John wanted to make it clear up front who Jesus is.

Does knowing that all things were made by God change the way we see the world around us? Lets look at a short list of created things:

butterflies
clouds
grass
lighting
trees
oceans
dolphins
ladybugs
wasps
strawberries
watermelon
chicken
mushrooms
tobacco
sharks
seahorses
people
elephants
jellyfish
koala bears
coal
diamonds
rubies
gold
arsenic
sunlight
radio waves
rainbows
hurricanes

I'm guessing in looking at that short list, my point is at least introduced. There are many things we think of as bad or harmful and wonder why God created them. What's the purpose of a hurricane? Are wasps really necessary? We often even complain about things that we think are good in some circumstances and not in others - such as the sun. In our arguing and complaining, however, there is an underlying current that runs deep. That current is the idea that we would have done things differently, better. And this is a very dangerous undercurrent.

God did not and does not do anything arbitrarily. He has a purpose in everything. His ultimate purpose is to bring glory to His name and draw people into a relationship with Him. That may sound like two purposes, but really it's not. He draws us to Him through His holy name because He is love and loves us perfectly.

So why all the icky stuff? Some of it we can figure out. Wasps and bees pollinate. Lightning creates and changes chemicals in the ground that benefits growth.

Others we may never figure out. And that's okay. Despite our thurst for knowledge and living in the information age, we will never have all knowledge nor understand everything. But if we truly believe God is who He says He is - that he is trustworthy, faithful, holy, righteous, & almighty - then we will trust that He purposed every last detail of His creation for a reason.

That's not to say that everything has gone according to His perfect will since creation. No! We'd better know better than that. But He has created all things and allowed things we don't understand according to His permissive will. And if we trust, we won't complain. At least not for too long.