Physics is fun. No, really! Even crazier: physics can teach us about God.
I came across a cool bit of physics recently that got me thinking. In essence, what I discovered was that our bodies are made up almost entirely of nothing!
To break down the physics a bit, for those who (like me!) aren’t exactly experts, here it is. Our bodies are made up of atoms, which the Ancient Greeks thought were like building blocks. I like Lego, so I guess that’s why that imagery appeals to me. Of course, it’s since been proved that atoms aren’t the ultimate building blocks after all.
Atoms themselves are made up of protons, electrons and neutrons. And as to what they’re made up of…well, it gets a bit complicated after that. The important thing is that protons generate a lot of our bodily mass. Around 93 per cent, since you asked! But what is their mass made up of?
It turns out that protons are made up of… not a lot. Particles inside them are constantly bubbling into existence, then disappearing again. A proton’s mass is mostly made up of the empty space between these particles. So if our bodily mass is largely determined by our protons, much of you is actually nothing.
Is it possible that this lesson learnt from particle physics can remind us that we are created to be filled?
In Matthew 12: 43-45, Jesus tells a parable of a demon possessed man. Somehow, he managed to rid himself of this one demon. But after the demon had wandered for a bit, it ended up bringing seven more demons back to the poor guy to inhabit his mind all over again. Suffice to say, the man was a lot worse off after that. Jesus says that “the final condition of that man is worse than the first”. I guess the problem was that when his mind was emptied, he didn’t fill it with godly thoughts.
It’s worth considering what the ‘emptiness’ in your life is. It could be a destructive habit that you need to claim God’s victory over. Perhaps you just lost someone close to you. Or maybe you don’t have close friends. Maybe you’re in a dead end job.
But in our emptiness lies true potential. It seems as if the man in Jesus’s story missed the point. The end goal wasn’t to expel his demon. The end goal was freedom! Such amazing freedom that God’s presence could fill him fully. Good news! God is more than enough to fill your emptiness. You don’t have to walk around feeling drained and lifeless. The Father who asks us to surrender our whole lives to Him knew what he was about when He created us.
Does God have a place in our empty spaces?
(image from CreationSwap)