Once upon a time, there was nothing. I think we underestimate the concept of nothing. Not only was there no matter. There was no energy. There was no structure. There was no shape to the universe, no dimension. No up, down, depth, width, time. There was no law. No law of gravity, thermodynamics, no law for the states of matter (solid, liquid, gas), no concept of temperature at all. As there was no cause or effect, nothing that could be effected, nothing that could cause anything, no laws of cause and effect. No logic, no morality, no history, no future.
God, when He created the world, didn’t have to account for any variables. There was no accounting for random chance, for human caprice, or for multiple possibilities. There were no variables, only a constant. God. From whom all blessings flow, and from whom every law originated and is maintained.
You ever seen one of those old Reese’s commercials? Like that game of mousetrap where the rolling marble hits the kicking boot hits the mouse cage hits the this that and the other until the mouse is trapped, or, in this case, a Reese’s is unwrapped? If the universe were a Reese’s commercial, then God Himself set up the pieces. And the laws for how they’d work. He designed the marble. He designed the boot. And He designed how they would interact. He intends the Reese’s to be unwrapped, and He has designed every intermediate step in between to accomplish this.
So, when God knocks over the very first domino (aka, let there be light), name a single thing down the road a week, a year, or a thousand, that God did not foresee.
Of course He foresaw. He sees everything, every future, and the future that will be set in stone. And, I contend, that if God set up the course, how every facet would interact with every other, if each variable is a function of God’s constant self, and if, without Him, nothing was made that was made (John 1:3), then everything God foresaw, He intended.
Selah (David’s word for “Pause, and think about this”).
Now, this doesn’t bring peace unless I know what God’s intentions are. Praise God He tells us. Ephesians describes God’s intentions as “kind” (Ephesians 1:5). And He works all things after the counsel of that will (Ephesians 1:11). So if some domino has knocked into my life in an unexpected way, I can be sure it has not happened in an unintended way. God, whose intention is kind, has intended this for me. And that’s better even than a Reese’s.
Excerpt from “Peace and How to Keep It.”