God clearly designed the universe with a well-thought-out design. We can see it throughout the sciences, but also in mathematics, the beauty we naturally observe in nature, and many aspects of human behavior. Everyone intuitively understands this.
But, like most well-designed things, God didn’t simply make it look good, and this design has many hidden features.
- The laws of the universe that have well-designed wrinkles that permit complex maneuvers (e.g., physics, star movements, quantum mechanics).
- Common design patterns across humanity and all living things gives a certain cross-compatibility (e.g., we can understand human DNA by observing bacteria or social behavior by observing rats).
- Our common characteristics permit us to share many aspects with each other, even when we diverge. The mechanisms for how we perceive, our tendencies to identify stories, and our generally political nature all unite us, even when their specific implementations differ.
The systems He designed also have built-in override features to accommodate whatever God wants. In other words, the system has a built-in flexibility to accommodate all potential variances.
This means, therefore, that it’s a bit of an illusion to call something a “miracle”.
- The conventional idea is that it’s “an event that violates the laws of nature”.
- However, if God already designed that miracle as part of the system, it’s still conforming to the system.
- Therefore, a better term for a miracle would be “an event that goes beyond the expectations we had from our experiences”.
Besides enhancing our general trust in God’s cleverness and sufficiency, this also gives us opportunity to see His craftsmanship. Take, for example, the sun standing still in Joshua 10:12-13:
- It’s entirely possible that God simply made the sun stop in the sky.
- But, it’s just as reasonable to assume that the Earth stopped rotating for about a day.
- And, if that’s the case, given what we know of astronomy, it could have meant that a very large mass moved close enough to affect the Earth’s gravity.
- In that context, we could probably examine every trajectory of every celestial body, and we could reverse-calculate what object came close enough at that time.
Further, it’s not simply something we can do, because God actually wants us to find those mysteries that are within our capacity (Proverbs 25:2).
Therefore, just like how humility isn’t simply looking like a lowly worm, doing things for the glory of God will not always look the same for everyone. Seeking out mysteries with your mind on Him is exactly what He wants us to do (1 Corinthians 10:31).