Faith at Hope

The Glory of God in Chemistry

A close-up of computer-generated molecules

Have you ever been amazed at the beauty or the grandness or the intricacy of nature? Perhaps you have been on a long hike and found a special peace in the quiet of the woods. Or maybe you have been to Niagara and have been overwhelmed by the roar of the falls and the blast of the watery wind against your face. And on the nights when the stars are bright and bold, you are amazed that the longer you look, the more stars you see. If you have ever had an experience like one of these, then you have seen the glory of God.

As a Christian chemistry professor, instead of looking outside to see the glory of God, I get to gaze at the minute details of the universe. Instead of focusing on waterfalls and woods, I get to look at the atoms and molecules that God used to build it all. These tiny particles also reveal the glory of God. Did you know that if an atom’s nucleus were the size of a golf ball, the atom itself would be one and a half miles wide? Did you know that one ounce of gold is made up of 87,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 gold atoms? When I ponder these truths, I cannot fully grasp them. They remind me of the time I first saw the Grand Canyon: even though I was seeing it with my own eyes, I could not fully take it in.

“The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge” (Psalm 19:1–2). As a professor, I am able to be a conduit of nature’s speech. I cherish the opportunity to help students discover the brilliant truths proclaimed by even the smallest pieces of the creation, so that God is glorified.

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