Fearful Might, Majestic Love

Aaron Armstrong:

Watching the reports of last week’s tornadoes in Alabama fly through my newsfeed, I sat filled with a strange mix of horror and awe.

Horror at the death and destruction that have occurred. I can’t imagine what it’s like for all those who are now picking up the pieces of their lives, who have lost friends and loved ones. Watching these events unfold in real time yet being completely unable to do anything about it while it is happening just leaves me feeling utterly powerless.

Yet we spend enormous amounts of time and money seeking to submit nature to our will. Hydroelectric dams, wind farms, solar panels, and offshore oil rigs litter the earth—all intended to harness the power of creation for our benefit. And to some degree, we are successful. Until a dam breaks and its water floods the region. Until oil lines rupture and pour billions of gallons of crude oil into the ocean. Until wind turbines increase the erosion of topsoil.

And those are just the things that are under our “control.” When a natural disaster, whether last week’s tornadoes or last month’s earthquake and subsequent tsunamis in Japan, we are confronted by a terrible truth: Despite our best efforts, this idea that we have mastered creation is just an illusion.

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