The Cracked Acorn: The Future

Our sons often asked me to tell them of the “old days.” I told them how I lived on a farm and we depended on crops and livestock to give us income. Drought, disease, too much rain, and high winds could seriously damage a good crop of corn and wheat. Agriculture is the one big industry quickly affected by changes in weather.

Those who watch weather patterns predict that more and more hurricanes will come ashore and head farther north. One I remember left us without power for four days. It took me back to my childhood when we depended on kerosene lamps and cooked over wood stoves. This could happen again.

We have no other choice but to live in this physical world that God created for us. It may not always behave the way we wish. We cannot live in straw houses set upon a sandy beach.

ALL WHO LISTEN TO MY INSTRUCTIONS AND FOLLOW THEM ARE WISE, LIKE A MAN WHO BUILDS HIS HOUSE ON SOLID ROCK. THOUGH THE RAINS COME IN TORRENTS, AND THE FLOODS RISE AND THE STORM WINDS BEAT AGAINST HIS HOUSE, IT WON’T COLLAPSE, FOR IT IS BUILT ON ROCK. BUT THOSE WHO HEAR MY INSTRUCTIONS AND IGNORE THEM ARE FOOLISH, LIKE A MAN WHO BUILDS HIS HOUSE ON SAND. FOR WHEN THE RAINS AND FLOODS COME, AND STORM WINDS BEAT AGAINST HIS HOUSE, IT WILL FALL WITH A MIGHTY CRASH. (Matthew 7:24-27)

The crowd who heard these words from Jesus was amazed at his wisdom.

Several million people live within the shadow of the world’s most historically deadly volcano at Vesuvius, Italy. One of its violent eruptions in 79 A.D. described by Pliny the Younger buried the towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum. Within a period of 19 hours, these two towns were buried in ash and the inhabitants were caught in the gas and cinders. Yet, today within the shadow of this violent volcano, smoking and sending out tremors, people carry on their daily lives as if this goes with the territory. Mass evacuations have not taken place. Volcano watchers note that there are no signs of unrest at Vesuvius at the present time. An estimated one million people live in the area of past eruptions.

Man has always been tempted to dream of gigantic projects and carry them to conclusions. The tallest building is never the limit. The biggest canal is never wide enough for our huge tankers. The oceans once beyond our reach are being dived into and harvested for their minerals. In the long term, it is now Mars. How far is “how far” and what are the limits of infinity; I am sure a scientist has an answer for all the preceding.

“When we behold the wonders of creation, The flowers that bloom the raindrops as they fall; The spacious skies and life’s perpetuation, We cannot doubt that God controlled it all. No finite mind, by mortal calculation Could frame the Truths revealed within His Word; In every trace of nature’s operation, Thy voice, O God, in mystery can be heard. Lord, I believe, yes, I believe, I cannot doubt or be deceived; The eye that sees each sparrow fall is in it all.” (from Sacred Selections)