Sustaining All Things

Sellafield nuclear power station is a symbol of our time and epitome of our world view. We thrive on electricity and love technological advancement. Sadly, this establishment was the scene of a nuclear fire back in the 1950s. Yet in its shadow in an incongruous, ancient stone circle to which public access is sadly denied (the yellowing field, above). Like the power plant, it too has been restored and reinstated, by children from a nearby school. Both plant and circle are/were likely considered great sources of power in their day. As the ancient shamans and sages intoned among the stones, invoking divine blessings and spells, so our own modern priesthood goes about its own intercession; men in white coats and horn-rimmed glasses peer at dials and temperature gages, conferring with charts on clipboard and laptop. Both castes were deemed necessary for their respective societies to flourish, and I for one am grateful that Sellafield employs numerous scientists to prevent Cumbria from melting in a nuclear accident. Yet it is the God of heaven, not pagan priests or scientific boffins, that keeps the atoms apart and life still breathing; Hebrews 1:3 talks of Christ ‘sustaining all things by His powerful word’. We believe that we are keeping ourselves safe and our world ticking over, but the real key to our safety and well-being is the Creator, of whom the ancients became increasingly ignorant and we moderns enjoy denigrating.

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. Col 1:15-17

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay