Wonderful in Complexity

An apple tree is a marvelous feat of engineering.

We take them for granted because they are so common. But consider if you were tasked to design an apple tree, what an incredibly complex task it would be!

Here is a system, a factory if you will, that starts as a self-contained seed; a compact, dormant state that is able to survive in harsh conditions for decades, awaiting just the right conditions to break that dormancy.

It has the internal blueprints for an organism far more complex than the space shuttle, but this information is contained in a package so small that it takes an electron microscope to see it. And every cell of the seed contains this information, and will flawlessly replicate it trillions of times. This seed also contains enough fuel to start up this factory until it is self-sustaining.

Once a sprout reaches sunlight, the factory kicks into high gear.

Solar panels are deployed, and according to its plans it will build an ever-enlarging factory using an unlimited raw material-carbon it extracts from thin air in the form of carbon dioxide, giving off oxygen as a waste product. Water is the transport mechanism for the food it fashions from carbon, and the whole factory is solar powered with an efficiency NASA engineers can only dream of.

This factory has a maintenance department that is able to detect and repair significant damage. It is adaptable through harsh climates and varied conditions, and will shut down during the most dangerous times, jettisoning vulnerable and expendable solar collectors, and start up again when conditions improve.

This factory has a mission - a mission to start more factories. In times of scarce resources, such as shortages of fertilizer (a small component of the machinery) or transport liquid (water), it will sacrifice resources to build escape pods for the factory-starters, a transport package commonly called apples.

It starts by openly soliciting information from other similar factories to integrate with its own design, to craft a factory unique in attributes, different from all other factories. It attractively packages the factory-starters in a sweet fruit to encourage transport of the seed by alien beings, such as animals and humans. It can continue production over 100 years, until finally it shuts down. During this time it may have started dozens of other factories to continue on production.

Man’s most gifted engineers cannot begin to design an organism so complex (pity the poor pomology major who tries to discover and memorize all the attributes of this factory). If it was unique in the universe, I would in my wildest dreams postulate that it came into being by accident. But this complex factory exists in a myriad of organisms, all similar in their complexity, ingeniousness, and efficiency.

It is sheer folly to conclude that it came about apart from a Supreme Engineer, one with unlimited intelligence, creativity, and imagination. Nothing but chaos comes from random disorder, and no one can point to any example of something complex happening by itself outside of nature, which is all the work of the Supreme Engineer anyway.

This designed work of the Supreme Engineer testifies of His creativity, but cannot tell us of His love. But the One who is able to sustain the genes of the apple tree is perfectly capable of seeing that a testament of His love and plan of reconciliation with His creation was recorded.

Throughout history He has given us insight into His nature, His compassion, and His desire to be known. He culminated this by taking on the form of a man to be born into a primitive civilization to experience the sufferings and temptations we feel, while showing us up close and personal the heart and desire of the Supreme Engineer.

Jesus Christ showed us the fatal flaw in our innermost being- sin that separates us from our Creator, sin that dooms us to death. But not wanting to be separated from His creation, God placed the penalty for our sin on his beloved, innocent Son by having Him humiliated, tortured, and executed in our place. With the penalty of death paid in full, all that remains for reconciliation with our Creator is to accept this.

God knows what you want, God knows what you need, and is the only One in the universe able to satisfy those needs. “For God loved the world so much, that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him will not die, but will have everlasting life (John 3:16).

"And the angel showed me a pure river with the water of life, clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb, coursing down the center of the main street. On each side of the river grew a tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, with a fresh crop each month. The leaves were used for medicine to heal the nations." Revelation 22:1-2

How to Know God

Photos: Seeds in a Williams' Pride, seedling sprout, apple blossoms in the local mountains, Stayman apple tree in the local mountains, Snow apples in the local mountains, apple orchard in the local mountains.

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