THE GOSPEL IN CHEMISTRY — THE PERIODIC TABLE
There is a quiet confidence about the periodic table. It hangs on classroom walls without apology—rows and columns marching in patient order, elements resting in places they did not choose, yet perfectly fit to occupy. Hydrogen does not argue for carbon’s position; oxygen never wanders into noble company by mistake. Each belongs, each behaves, each obeys.
What makes it remarkable is not merely what it shows, but what it assumes.
Long before laboratories were built, before names were given or symbols assigned, the order was already there. The table did not create the laws of matter; it revealed them. When gaps were left—empty spaces waiting for undiscovered elements—it was not optimism that filled them, but confidence in an underlying rationality. The world, it was trusted, would be faithful to its own design.
And it was.
This is where devotion begins.
We are often told that science explains everything, yet science itself stands on borrowed ground. It assumes consistency. It assumes logic. It assumes that tomorrow will behave like today. Chemistry works because the universe is dependable; equations hold because reality is not whimsical. These assumptions cannot be weighed or measured—but without them, nothing can be studied at all.
Order is not an accident that keeps happening.
The periodic table whispers what Scripture proclaims: that creation is intelligible because it proceeds from Intelligence; that law exists because there is a Lawgiver; that matter obeys because it was first commanded to be (Genesis 1:3). “Christ is before all things,” Paul writes, “and in Him all things consist” (Colossians 1:17). The table is not merely arranged—it is held.
This does not diminish scientific wonder; it deepens it. To discover is not to replace God, but to think His thoughts after Him—slowly, humbly, and with awe. Every pattern uncovered is another testimony that the universe is not a riddle without an answer, but a sentence spoken with meaning.
And here is the tender truth for the soul.
If the elements have their appointed place, then so do you. If atoms obey unseen laws, then your life is not drifting through chaos. The same Lord who ordered matter orders mercy; the same wisdom that governs creation governs redemption. The cross itself is not an interruption of reason, but its fulfillment—where justice and grace meet without contradiction (1 Corinthians 1:18-25).
The table on the wall does not shout. Neither does God. Yet both speak clearly to those willing to listen.
“For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made” (Romans 1:20).
Lord of all order and mercy, open my eyes to see Your wisdom in creation and Your grace in Christ; steady my heart to trust that the One who holds the universe also holds me. Amen.
BDD
