The surest sign of detachment from Creation is the vainglory that permeates our culture. So many claims are issued, condemnations published by journalistic Oracles of Delphi. They forget that the original Oracle was a priestess who got high from subterranean fumes and jabbered nonsense. A second person had to interpret her ecstatic speech.
Thucydides was unimpressed. His History of the Peloponnesian Wars is seldom read now, because nobody can remember how to spell Peloponnesian. The greatest historian of all time concluded - "the Oracle was correct only once." Anyone could make one accurate prediction in a lifetime, even one addicted to inhalants.
China is the ultimate example of atheistic arrogance, though America is not far behind the Chinese. Some have theorized that China doomed itself by building money-dams and calling them flood control devices. Socialism is not so pure that people do not make millions from state projects. Another reason for the ongoing disaster may be their attempt to get more rain from manipulating the weather, something America has also manipulated.
The dam complex was doomed from the beginning. China lusts for technology but does not perfect what they start. Many accounts of Chinese construction claim that shortcuts and sloppiness are the standard, not the exception.
The world's largest dam - should that also be - the best engineered and constructed dam? They knew the concrete was sub-standard and the structure not attached to the bedrock. Even then, a gigantic dam in the middle of a flood prone river was destined to flood the tailwaters (east) or the headwaters (west) when Creation took them by the hand.
Norma Boeckler's home in Midland, 30 feet above the river, has been flooded three times since 1986. The communities failed to provide good drainage in a very flat area and also neglected two earthen dams. Yes - earthen. I would not want two lakes separated from my home by a big, neglected pile of sod.
Multiply those factors by one billion and there is China. The leaders response to the growing catastrophe - silence, avoidance, public relations notes on the beauty of mists, fogs, and floods.
In one, neglected Book we have the answers. God created and engineered the Universe through the Logos - the Son of God. I taught confirmation students that everything they could see, touch, and read about was created by power of the Word, the Logos, Jesus the Son of God:
- Trees
- Plants
- Flowers
- Animals
- Fish
- Metals
- Jewels
- Planets and stars
- Constellations and comets
- Mankind.
If that does not humble us, then gardening surely will. Great plans turn into nothing on a very small scare. On the other hand, wonders develop that far exceed our expectations.
I was laughing with our neighbor about the food plants that get eaten before they get anywhere. I said, "This is a haven for rabbits. We have storage sheds which make wonderful shelters for their nests, warm, dry, protected." The only food that ripened in my yard was corn, and squirrels ate that while leaving the stalks straight up bare to taunt me.
But the flowers grown for pollinators - they have produced a mix of blooms and fragrances. The bees and insects work the blossoms until the sun sets. The air is filled with a mix of vanilla, cinnamon, mint, sweetness, rose, and medicine. The medicinal plants have that Vicks smell that suggests they must be healing herbs - Yarrow, Chaste Tree, Comfrey.
The messes in our world come from man's reckless arrogance and reliance on human wisdom. There is an alternative to that.
