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Providence in Creation

A deeper understanding of the theological nature of providence can help us better understand how God works in connection with human beings as they work.

According to the Bible, God is a hands-on creator and caregiver. God actively creates, sustains, preserves, and guides all things to their ultimate fulfillment. John Calvin taught, “As keeper of the keys, [God] governs all events. Thus [providence] pertains no less to his hands than to his eyes.”[1] God is involved with creation. “Where God’s creating activity leaves off, there his providential care takes over. These two phases . . . are inextricably interconnected. Providence presupposes creation . . . creation moves on naturally and directly into providence, with no gap in between.”[2]

Creation and providence are connected—and not just chronologically. God built sustaining care into the very design of the universe. It’s woven into the very fabric of the cosmos.

All the mechanisms that hold the universe together are, according to the apostle Paul, held together in Jesus: “For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together” (Col. 1:16–17). Yet the line between the care God built into creation and the care God brings through ongoing providence can be a blurry one.

God cares for a world that’s already cared for. God feeds all creatures by way of an ecosystem’s innate life-sustaining structures. God keeps our feet on the ground by a natural gravitational pull. Much of God’s providence, it seems, is built in.

What could this mean for those whose work regularly intervenes with and shapes nature? If God is an intervening God who holds everything in creation, then surely God is at work in all the good that science pursues. Even as those who work in science give evidence to the possibility of God’s providential intervention, they also open the door to understanding how a providentially intervening God works.

[1] John Calvin, Calvin: Institutes of the Christian Religion, The Library of Christian Classics (Louisville, KY: Presbyterian Publishing Corporation, 1960), I.xvi.4, Kindle.

[2] Gordon J. Spykman, Reformational Theology: A New Paradigm for Doing Dogmatics (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1992), 272.

Take Action:

What if you try to connect the next scientific truth you encounter to an attribute of our ever-near God? If everything comes from God’s mind, then everything has something to say about God’s nature. Take gravity for instance. Thank God for this universal law that keeps everything in place in relation to everything else. God sets your feet on solid ground, He is a sure foundation, and He is the ultimate gravitational force—drawing in all things. God’s gravitational nature can be contemplated with every step you take.

Of course, you can’t think about this stuff all the time. You wouldn’t have time for anything else! But you can think about it more. The same Spirit who holds the universe in place holds you in place and knows the right time for all things.

Adjust your plans to make time to read your Bible more. Engaging God’s nature through the Scriptures will give you more with which to recognize God’s nature in creation.

Last, prayerfully consider these words and let them shape your perceptions: “For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together” (Col. 1:16–17).