My Week

Like many of you, I started out the week with several things I wanted to accomplish. The first one was making this Chuck Roast Ragu recipe.

This recipe called for a 2 pound roast cubed and seared as the first step. We like our cubes a little smaller than the recipe suggested so it took me additional time to sear them. I had just finished searing them and was sautéing some onions and garlic when all of a sudden, I needed to lie down. 

I was stricken with a virus (I suspect). I was running a low fever and didn’t want to do anything but lie there with my eyes closed. I finally got enough resolve to go back in the kitchen and finish my dish in the slow cooker and take some Tylenol.

I’m certainly not a virologist but as I understand it, there is some controversy about whether viruses meet the definition of a life form that philosophers and scientists have spent centuries developing. Usually, a life form is defined by their actions as something that is composed of one or more cells, maintains their internal environment, has a metabolism, grows, adapts, responds to stimuli, and reproduces. Again, as I understand it, viruses do well on all the activities of life except they really aren’t cells in the definition of a cell.

However, from experience I can tell you that those little buggars when they latch onto a host can wreak havoc for a few days.  Fortunately, for me, I was starting to feel better the next day and by the third day (today), I am just a little tired.

During this time when I didn’t want to get out of bed, I started contemplating the complexity of life.  I’ve, from time to time, asked myself what I could do to survive if society were to collapse.  Some things seem obvious assuming I had the appropriate supplies to start with. For example, we’ve never been gardeners but I think I could get a garden going for vegetables if I had the seeds and some basic info. I don’t think I could reinvent a television much less all the people and activities that go into producing the tv shows. I could (and have as a youth) hunt and process the game. I have no idea how I could produce the electricity that the hundreds of things in my house depend on if the supply of gas to our generator failed. And on and on.

But the more you let your mind explore this rabbit hole makes you realize how complex and amazing is God’s creation.

“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile.” - Jeremiah 29:11-14 ESV

“He determines the number of the stars; he gives to all of them their names. Great is our Lord, and abundant in power; his understanding is beyond measure.” - Psalm 147:4-5 ESV

“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day. And God said, “Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.” And God made the expanse and separated the waters that were under the expanse from the waters that were above the expanse. And it was so. And God called the expanse Heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, the second day. And God said, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.” And it was so. God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good. And God said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, on the earth.” And it was so. The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, the third day. And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years, and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth.” And it was so. And God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars. And God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day. And God said, “Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the heavens.” So God created the great sea creatures and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarm, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day. And God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds—livestock and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds.” And it was so. And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds and the livestock according to their kinds, and everything that creeps on the ground according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” - Genesis 1:1-27 ESV

How great is our God!