From The Air, God Is Clearly The God Of Order

On our first cross-country flight last weekend, I was blown away by the way roads and the fields make beautiful patterns on the ground. I dare you to look at Iowa from the sky and tell me God isn't a God of order. The earth is too perfect for it to have been boomed into existence. Order out of chaos.

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. Genesis 1:1-3

You can't see it from the road. You're too low and can't see far enough to get the best perspective. I remember my grandpa telling me that the best way to find all the farmhouses is to look for the trees. They're tucked in there away from the wind and the traffic and so all the rest of the land around it can be tilled and used for farming. From the air, you can definitely see the truth to that.

For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints. 1 Corinthians 14:33

The lack of confusion means order, calm, and structure - all done God's way. I think about the story of how Wapello County was officially organized in 1843. The night before the territory was opened, a bunch of people snuck in and marked off the tracts of land they wanted. When the rush opened at midnight, they made their way to their new properties. What they didn't realize was that many of the boundaries overlapped, therefore the very first act of the new county was to hire a lawyer and surveyors to sort things out. What a waste of time and resources when they could have been patient and done things well and in order.

Let all things be done decently and in order. 1 Corinthians 14:40


Paul's words to the church at Corinth about how to conduct worship is applicable to absolutely everything in the Christian's life - decently and in order. Decently and honestly, and in regular arrangement with official dignity. These four ideas are the complete opposite of the normal chaos of human existence and the world around us. Order takes effort, the arranging of things into their proper places. But that effort is what God sees and blesses when we live to serve Him.


For though I be absent in the flesh, yet am I with you in the spirit, joying and beholding your order, and the stedfastness of your faith in Christ. Colossians 2:5

The Iowa farmland picture here brings me peace. While some see vast expanses of nothing, I see lines and order and life lived on purpose. It makes my heart happy to see it in full view from the sky, but eventually we have to land. Once we're on the ground, it's our responsibility to take the order that God has shown us and make it a part of our everyday lives. Even if you're not a fan of planning and organizing and arranging, ordering the way you live according to God's word and His structure brings spiritual blessings that you can't even imagine.

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