“If there is one single molecule in this universe running around loose, totally free of God’s sovereignty, then we have no guarantee that a single promise of God will ever be fulfilled.” – R.C. Sproul
From earliest childhood, many people have grown up believing in the reality of chance. As kids, we could always be found looking around for four-leaf clovers in a meadow; petting rabbit’s feet; or throwing salt over our shoulder for good luck. We were careful around black cats and going underneath ladders; we avoided breaking mirrors, and if at all possible, we were careful to send out any chain-letters we received! And of course, we never stepped on a crack on the sidewalk lest something bad happened to our dear mother.
Now I don’t know how serious we were about any of those things, but it’s interesting that superstition continues to be for many people a serious issue and a frightening reality! But the real question is…does “chance” really exist? When good things happen and especially when bad things happen…we may secretly ask: Was it God or chance?
Does chance really exist?
Many people believe that it does. Proof of that can be seen in the popularity of legalized gambling in this country. Legalized gambling in America today generates more revenue than movies, spectator sports, theme parks, cruise ships and recorded music combined. Also, 29% of Americans believe in astrology and read their horoscopes daily, looking to the stars for hints to their uncertain future!
So do people in America believe in chance? According to these statistics they do.
In fact, the question of chance has even become a part of our popular culture with the 1994 release of the very popular movie, Forrest Gump. If you remember, the story of Forrest Gump is the story of a mentally challenged man in the South whose life intersects with; and whose life influences many of the important events of the 20th century.
This unforgettable motion picture begins with a lone feather flying in the sky which finally lands, rather providentially, at the feet of Forrest Gump who’s simply sitting on a park bench waiting for a bus. The feather in the movie is meant to be symbolic of a number of philosophical questions: Is life predestined or is it random? Does a feather land where it does because of destiny or because of chance? Are our lives like a feather blowing in the wind? If you remember, towards the end of the story Forrest Gump stands in front of his wife’s grave asking the same question:
“I don’t know if we each have a destiny or if we’re all just floating around accidental-like on a breeze, but I think, maybe it’s both? Maybe both is happening at the same time.”
Quite an astute and profound observation from a man, many thought, was “stupid or somethin’?”
Of course, even behind evolutionary theory, there is the belief that the universe itself exists purely by chance. From the supposed “Big Bang” which started it all to the existence of the human beings on the planet; from an evolutionary point of view, space plus time plus chance equals existence. And yet…
How does one explain the order to everything found in the universe? Why are there scientific laws existent and active in the universe if there is no lawgiver ensuring their existence?
And if the universe is ordered; in that there are laws governing what is happening in nature and in the cosmos, then why do things happen for seemingly no particular reason? Honestly, scientists haven’t been able to figure that one out!
Take the planet Hyperion for example. Hyperion is one of sixty-two moons orbiting Saturn. This moon is unlike any other moon ever observed in that it is shaped like a Big Potato. Apparently, because of this, it doesn’t spin like other planets, it actually tumbles through space! Physicists and astronomers have sought to, by the mathematics of gravity, velocity, and trajectory, predict where it will be in its orbit around Saturn at a given time in space. Yet what they’ve discovered is, that when Hyperion reaches that particular point in space, it’s not where it is supposed to be.
Scientists were shocked to discover that this moon doesn’t always follow the mathematical laws of physics. It’s not where it should be at any given time; something unseen moves it. Why did it move? Well, scientists have posited the Theory of Chaos, which states that an unseen force which defies the laws of physics causes it to move for no explainable reason.
Interesting!? What evolutionary science call chaos, chance or luck; the Bible calls Providence! For the Scriptures teach us that God is able to suspend any scientific law he chooses to accomplish his will anytime he so desires.
There are many examples of this in Scripture: In 2 Kings 6, we find God suspending the law of density in order to make an ax head float; in Joshua 10, God suspended the gravitational pull of the Sun to allow Joshua and the armies of Israel more time to kill the Amorites.
In other words, could it be; that what many consider chance; isn’t chance at all; but it is in fact, the invisible power of an all-powerful God exercising his providential will and supernatural control over what exists?
Certainly, this seems to be the predominant view of the Bible. We are reminded of this fact through a series of questions which Job asked of which Nicole Mullens sings…
Who taught the sun where to stand in the morning? And who told the ocean “You can only come this far”? And who showed the moon; Where to hide till evening? Whose words alone can catch a falling star?
Well, the obvious answer to all of those questions from a biblical point of view is the Providential workings of an unseen Deity! In other words, God is the one who tells the sun where to stand; God is the one who keeps the mighty and unpredictable ocean at bay. God is the one who determines the trajectory of Hyperion.
But is there nothing incidental, coincidental or accidental about life? What of the ordinary and the mundane? What of the incidental feather that blows in the wind? Is it’s trajectory through the air, and even its final destination and resting place providentially determined, or does it float accidental-like on a breeze?
And, could we ask the same question of an individual human life? Is it possible that we each live a Forrest Gump kind of existence where what we thought was accidental was really the providential breath of Almighty God winging the trajectory of our lives in and out of the remarkable?
To many, the idea of God influencing where a feather goes and ultimately where it ends up seems like a ludicrous idea. For why should God care about the destiny of a feather? Yet perhaps that is the glory of it.
In the Scripture, it is in the insignificant and mundane events of life that God may also be found. Solomon adeptly writes, “The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord.” And also, “In his heart, a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps.” And more than this, even Jesus enlightens us as to the extent of God’s providential involvement in the world. “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father.”
In the whole of worldly insignificance; from the infinitesimal to the microscopic; from the inconsequential and unnoticed; to the mundane and incidental, one can find God at work.
To return to the feather of Forrest Gump, one cannot say that where it lands is merely by happenstance if you factor God into the picture. For it was God who was responsible for its formation and intricate beauty in the first place; it was God who formed and continues the process for it to molt from the bird it once covered; it was God who forms and directs the breeze that changes its trajectory in mid-flight; and it was God who created and sovereignly allowed the obstacles to exist that eventually impede its progress or cause the principles of lift to subside causing it to rest where it eventually does. Now, this does not deny the principles and processes of science, instead, it includes them and acknowledges them as the fingerprints of a God who established them; and who wills them to his own use.
Perhaps our problem is the issue of perception. Things seem accidental and purely by chance simply because we’re finite creatures looking at the tapestry of life from beneath with naught but our own limited faculties to make sense of the world in which we live. And from our vantage point, life seems more random than it truly is. But that is only our flawed perception. Yet, from the vantage point of Providence, we are able to see more clearly than we ever have. It helps us make sense not only of the good things that come our way in life but also of the dark things. Wise Solomon wrote, “When times are good, be happy; but when times are bad, consider; God has made the one as well as the other.” Ecclesiastes 7:14
Often it is at this point when we may agree with John Murray who wrote, “The providence of God is often a dark and impenetrable abyss to us. Clouds and darkness are round about him. His way is in the sea, and his path in the great waters. His footsteps are not known.” And for Job especially, being unable to trace out the trajectory of God’s hand; and given that God had chosen, at that particular time, to be silent when Job had nothing but questions as to his pain was particularly vexing to Job, so much so that he even had the effrontery to accuse God of inequity.
But then Job came to know, through his one-sided conversation with the Almighty, that God’s sovereignty operates not just on the upside of life but also on the downside. That, though providence may seem impenetrable to us, it’s not impenetrable to God. That the impenetrable nature of the multi-faceted vicissitudes of life are intricately woven into the very fabric our lives by a benevolent Providence, both what we consider good and also what we consider bad; left Job with only one beneficial option: To trust God even though he did not and could not understand him.
It is for us as well. For even though we may not know why the dark times wing their way into our lives, we can know…that God knows.
In a world of dark and foreboding circumstance, Providence is the only soft pillow in which to rest.
And resting in providence allows us; even frees us to let go of our imponderables. Unanswerable questions which, like quicksand of the soul, suck us down to despair and bitterness.
We may not have all the answers; (perhaps we don’t even understand the questions)? But when we place our lives in the hands of a God who loves us; and has proven that, time and again, we’ll find that our need for those answers will subside. We may find ourselves caught in the tidal wave of the workings of providential happenstance; and yet through it all, a loving Father will hold your hand. What more could you need?
As Alistair Begg has said, because of providence…” prosperity should not be an occasion for pride; nor should uncertainty be the occasion for panic.”
What better way could there be to live?