Yesterday I noticed, after gassing up my car (remember the PWT Saturn?), that the odometer had reached 121,312 miles. Anticipating the two-mile drive to church this morning, I put my camera in the car. Sure enough, the odometer reading was 121314 when we got to church, so I took out the camera and snapped a shot. Cat asked what in the world I was doing. When I explained about the one-two, one-three, one-four phenomenon, she said, "So?"
Well, she has a point, of course. The odds of the odometer stopping at 121314 are the same as for stopping at 130086. There is no magic to the consecutive numbers 12, 13, and 14. It's just that I want to assign significance. There is nothing important about the 121,314th mile this car has driven, but I want to see order in the chaos.
Where does that desire originate? Is it a question of security? Do I feel safer in a world where I can sometimes perceive order and regualarity, a world in which I can occasionally count on something happening? Is there something within me that searches for the order which God has employed in constructing my reality?
That's what the first creation account in Genesis suggests: we are trying to find order in God's creation. Look how the days and creatures are arranged in that account. Draw out a table with three rows and two columns. Write down the created items of the first three days in one column. Then write down the created items of the last three days in the neighboring column. Compare the rows (i.e., day one to day four, day two to day five, etc.) What do the items have in common with the others in their column? With the others in their row?
Even if it may be entirely arbitrary, I like finding some order in the chaos. Encourages my hope.
4 comments:
I too like finding order in odd places, though sometimes it is a problem...I work with numbers all day and often see patterns of order that have absoulutely nothing to do with the problem I am trying to solve, which is trying to get the estimate I am putting into a computer to match the estimate the insurance company has put into their system, using entirely different software.
Too late tonight to check out your puzzle from Genesis, I'll look at it later...
Encourages my hope....I like that.
Cool!
(When my brother reads this, I can guarantee you he will say something about the need to clean your dashboard glass. He's old and crochety like that.)
Actually, the visual disturbance was caused by the reflection off the driver's side window. So he can scold me for keeping my vehicle dirty on the outside, but I had cleaned off the dashboard glass. The photo I took at home (out of the glaring sun) was much clearer, but it showed 121312.
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