Who Does Wondrous Things?

“Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, who alone does wondrous things.”

Psalm 72:18 ESV

Sometimes during my everyday life with my children I find myself saying to my children, “I’m so glad God made blank,” but the fill-in for that blank could be something like Oreos or fuzzy blankets or vanilla almond tea. As soon as the words come out of my mouth the jaded, agnostic gremlin that lives in my head rolls its eyes and replies, “No. Nabisco makes the Oreo.”

But who made the hands that built the Nabisco factories? Who formed in the womb Samuel J. Porcello and gave him the mind and taste buds to perfect milk’s favorite cookie?

Oreos not your thing? How about this one instead:

Who made Thomas Edison? Who allowed egg and sperm to meet in his mother’s womb? Who watched over his growth and health with tender loving care so that the electrical synapses firing in his brain would connect bit by bit to bring light and sound to thousands of homes and hospitals.

Who made the birds? Who taught them to fly? Who filled the young minds of young Wilbur and Orville Wright with wonder and longing at the sight of them? And more so than the average man, for they sharpened their design by marking the tip and turn of a buzzard’s wing in order to one day take flight themselves.

So, who really made the Oreo? Who alone does wondrous things?

“…we hold that God is the disposer and ruler of all things – that from the remotest eternity, according to his own wisdom, he decreed what he was to do, and now by his power executes what he decreed. Hence we maintain, that by his providence, not heaven and earth and inanimate creatures only, but also the counsels and wills of men are so governed as to move exactly in the course which he has destined.”

John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion

If we truly believe God is sovereign, then we have no alternative but to attribute all things to Him, both good and bad, both famine and plenty, trusting that His mercy and justice, as proved from the scriptures, will ultimately bring closure to all corruption and form beauty from the ashes of despair. The trust inherent in this when our world is wrecked by pain is no easy feat. But God promises to guide us along the way, our shepherd, our savior, our redeemer, our friend.

“Blessed be his glorious name forever; may the whole earth be filled with his glory! Amen and Amen!”

Psalm 72:19