#191 – Behold, it was very good

PDF Version

Tony Hayward is a name which was formerly unknown to most British people until he recently caused Barak Obama to see red. He is the Chief Executive of BP and is at the centre of the crisis in the Gulf of Mexico as BP work frantically to stop the leakage from the damaged oil well. Sadly, under pressure from the circumstances he found himself in, Hayward made statements like, "the Gulf is a very big ocean", implying the spillage would not have a major impact. He also said, "I want my life back" meaning he wanted the crisis sorted so that he could return to a normal lifestyle. The US President, who lives under constant and immense pressure, was not impressed. When all of this has been sorted we will probably find out what caused the explosion (if it's not already known) and will discover that the blame does not rest on one man's shoulders.

I am reminded of the words from Genesis chapter 1 at the end of the creation story where the writer says, "And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good." There is something quite distinctive about the world which God has created compared to the things we, as humans, design and manufacture. Although God never said, "There won't be earthquakes, tsunamis or erupting volcanoes", he looked with total satisfaction on the end product knowing that it was totally fit for purpose.

I worked for many years for a company which manufactured pressure measurement equipment. When the Piper Alpha oil rig suffered an explosion, not dissimilar to that in the Gulf of Mexico, the problem was traced to a component which had no doubt been rigorously tested – but not quite enough. The result was that it could not resist the pressure in circumstances which it found itself in. A colleague of mine understood the problem on the Piper Alpha and designed a more advanced component which we supplied to the owners to replace the previous faulty one.

God's creation, on the other hand, is glorious in that when things go wrong – like pollution or abuse by its human neighbours – it has the inbuilt power to heal itself. We know this when we break a bone in our body. Without any intervention from ourselves, apart from rest and patience, the body has the ability to heal itself – praise God! Eventually the damage inflicted upon the Gulf of Mexico will be rectified by the healing power within nature and normality will be restored.

But it's not just in science and technology that things go wrong. Sometimes human relationships break down. I think of these chilling words from the letter of James:-

And the tongue is a fire. The tongue is an unrighteous world among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the cycle of nature, and set on fire by hell. For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by humankind, but no human being can tame the tongue — a restless evil, full of deadly poison. (James 5:6-8)

If James was writing today he would probably have extended his text to include not only the tongue, but emails too. How easy it is to send an email which, because it is hastily written, conveys the completely wrong message to the recipient and causes untold damage.

Unlike God’s creation, these things have no in-built healing properties. They can only be healed externally – not by words but by an attitude of the heart which shows remorse and seeks never to repeat the mistake. 

The psalmist says this:-

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)