the God of entropy

Today in the One Year Bible, we read from Ezekiel 37:1-38:23. In this passage, we read about a valley full of dry bones. God tells Ezekiel to command the bones to become people once again. And then He tells him to order the wind to breathe life into them once more.

Now, in this case the bones are a metaphor. They represent the people of Israel, who had given up on themselves. They had gone so long (they thought) without seeing their redemption that they no longer believed it was possible. 

Today it's tempting to feel that way, too. That we've gone too far this time. That our country has pushed us to the brink of Armageddon. That the end of the world is coming soon. 

I recently read a very interesting story by Isaac Asimov called The Last Question. You can read about it here. In this story, the question is asked over and over again: Can we reverse entropy? If you don't know what that means, here is an explanation. Entropy is the tendency of things to go from order to disorder over time. In fact, some say that time itself is simply a measure of entropy. When a star (like our sun) burns itself out, becomes a supernova and then a dwarf before finally burning out and becoming nothing at all... that's entropy. The Asimov story is the concern of a VERY forward thinking human race - what will happen when, trillions and trillions of trillions of years from now, the last stars burn out. Will any humans that are still alive then be able to survive that end of all ends? They ask their best supercomputers, and the computers keep telling them that the computer has insufficient data to give a meaningful answer.

Finally at the end of the story, the computer (merged with the consciousness of all remaining humans) discovers the answer... it IS possible. And so the computer/human superintelligence says, "Let there be light." And there was light... a SECOND Big Bang.

Well, that's all science fiction. But the fact of the matter is that God is God of everything, and that includes entropy. Only He can reverse the flow of time toward oblivion. Only He can takes bones and turn them back into people. 

Which gives me and you hope, right? Because if He can do THAT... well, then just maybe He can take a miserable, lame little sinner like me and pour life giving breath back into ME again. Maybe He can reverse MY entropy and enable me to survive the end of the world as we know it.

God, thanks for being the God of entropy - please give life to these dry bones again.