Willard S. Boyle, Nobel
Prize winner in physics, was the co-inventor of the “electronic eye” behind the
digital camera and the Hubble telescope. He was in the market for a new digital
camera and visited a store in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The salesman tried to
explain the complexity of the camera to Boyle, but stopped because he felt it
was too complicated for him to understand. Boyle then bluntly said to the
salesman: “No need to explain. I invented it.”
After God
allowed Satan to test Job by taking away his family, his health, and his
possessions (Job 1–2), Job lamented the day of his birth (ch. 3). In the
following chapters, Job questioned why God would allow him to endure so much
suffering. Then with divine bluntness, God reminded Job that He “invented” life
and created the world (chs. 38–41). God invited him to rethink what he had
said. In drawing attention to His sovereign power and the depth of His wisdom
displayed everywhere on earth (38:4-41), God exposed the immensity of Job’s
ignorance.
If we’re tempted to tell God how life should work, let’s remember He invented it! May He help us to humbly acknowledge our ignorance and to rely on Him—the Creator of the universe.
To understand God is impossible,
but to worship Him is imperative. (RBC)
