By David Faust
Human Inventions and God’s Creation
Human creativity can produce remarkable things, but creation continually reminds us that God’s handiwork came first. From light and water to music, flight, and the beauty of nature, our inventions often echo what God has already made.
- Human inventions often imitate patterns already visible in creation.
- Scientific discoveries uncover realities God has already woven into the world.
- Observing nature can direct our attention toward the Creator.
Human Inventions and God’s Creation
We build swimming pools. God made the ocean.
We spray our houses with air fresheners. God perfumes the air with roses and pine needles.
We make candles and light bulbs. God made the sun, moon, and stars.
Refrigerators make ice cubes. God makes glaciers and blankets the earth with sparkling crystals of snow.
We invent dimmer switches to gradually turn down the lights. God makes the sun set ever so slowly on summer evenings while he adorns the twilight with shades of pink and gold.
We plug in electric fans and air conditioners. God made the desert wind and the ocean breeze.
We make furnaces and fireplaces. God uses the sun to warm the earth from above and magma to warm it from beneath.
We use cameras to take pictures and make videos. God created eyes to behold and minds to remember what we see.
We buy carpets and tiles to cover the floor. God cushions and beautifies valleys with prairie grass and wildflowers.
We build houses and top them with shingles. God makes mountains and crowns them with cedars, pines, and snowcaps.
We enjoy delicious food, and God made it possible by creating grain and meat, vegetables and fruit, sugar cane and cinnamon, cocoa beans and honey.
We dig wells and gulp down bottled drinks. God provides aquifers beneath the crust of the earth and pours life-giving water from the clouds.
We compose, perform, and listen to music. God created sound waves and eardrums, fingers to strum and toes to tap.
We paint portraits and carve statues. God crafts sculptures in sandstone canyons and paints the sky at sunrise.
We build zoos and keep animals as pets. “God made the wild animals … the livestock … and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good” (Genesis 1:25, New International Version).
For centuries, people tried to learn how to fly, but flight was a simple thing for God, who made cardinals and blue jays, eagles and hawks, bats and bumblebees, butterflies and hummingbirds, herons and storks, swans and doves.
Discovering What God Already Made
The Creator wasn’t surprised when we discovered electricity, radar, X rays, and chromosomes. Our scientific discoveries don’t startle him. He has been waiting patiently for us to uncover them.
E-mail can send a message around the world in seconds. But since the dawn of time, believers’ prayers have stirred action in heaven’s throne room.
“There is nothing new under the sun,” a wise teacher observed long ago (Ecclesiastes 1:9). That’s because what we call inventions are mere imitations of God’s handiwork.
Creation Points to the Creator
Maybe that’s why, even in his suffering, Job found comfort from observing nature. “But ask the animals, and they will teach you, or the birds of the air, and they will tell you,” Job said, “or speak to the earth, and it will teach you, or let the fish of the sea inform you. Which of all these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this?” (Job 12:7-9).
The philosopher C. S. Pierce proposed a humble argument for the existence of God. It goes like this: “Take a walk in the countryside and contemplate.”
This article by David Faust was first published in The Lookout magazine on August 13, 2000. Dave has written weekly essays for The Lookout and Christian Standard for over 30 years. His articles have been collected and are now available for free, searchable by topic and Scripture reference, on the website DaveFaustWrites.com.
Author: David Faust
David Faust serves as contributing editor of Christian Standard and senior associate minister with East 91st Street Christian Church in Indianapolis, Indiana. He is the author of Not Too Old: Turning Your Later Years into Greater Years.
