God loves chaos!

Chaos is a name for any order that creates confusion in our minds - George Santayana.

Man has a basic resistance to chaos. He likes life predictable and systematic. Want evidence? Look around you. See how good a man is at creating systems that are simple, identical and replicable. The quality, dimensions and features of the computer that you are looking at right now have been identically replicated under mass production by man and man-made machines. Also, look at the bricks that were used in building the room where you are sitting in — they are all the result of similar intentions and action.

I bet you will find this intent and effort towards synchronization, system, similarity and simplicity in almost everything that is man-made or conceptualized by humans. Take for instance our schools, where we mass – produce students of similar skills, knowledge and attitudes. What about our religious institutions where we cultivate faith and belief for mass acceptance. Man is continually seeking system and order. And anything that is not well-ordered is considered ‘chaotic’ by him.

However, God (Nature or Creator) likes complexity and chaos. Look at the living things that God has created like the trees, leaves, flowers, animals, birds, insects and microscopic organisms etc. And, the non-living things like rocks (God made version of bricks), mountains, seas, rivers, clouds, soil and air etc.

Ponder over it for a while and you will realize that none of the things mentioned in this list have an identical pair. No two trees look similar. Even the most similar looking leaves of a plant are different in some way or the other. Have you ever eaten two apples (or any other fruit) that look and taste same? Invariably the answer would be an emphatic “no”.

The human desperation for synchronization is also reflected in the concept called time. When man invented time, he might not have imagined that he was creating his own master. We have a fixed time for everything. The omnipresent master of the human race, called a clock, governs all offices, schools, railways, airplanes etc. On the other hand, try giving a fixed time for rains, earthquakes or even an everyday phenomenon like sunrise and sunset, and you will be wrong each time. That is how God governs his empire. He is enigmatic. God is not punctual.

So, why is Man like that? Is he that careful a person or is he is just trying to impress God or is it that he just cannot be anything but systematic, synchronized and simple? I don’t think any of these descriptions are accurate.

And, why is God like that? Is He careless or He is just experimenting or does He just want to have some fun? Maybe God just cannot be anything but chaotic, asynchronous and complex? I think all of these descriptions are accurate.

God, one might believe is very careful but I think He is not. Have a look at the way He has made human beings. He gave us almost similar bodies with congruently designed body parts even to the microscopic level of the body cells. Each body cell is the same in all of us. However he programmed them so differently that certain cells grow to become body parts while others grow to become a deadly disease called cancer. He installed a brain in all of us but with dissimilar qualities, capacities and intentions. Hence, you have a major difference between the two shrewdest brains of Albert Einstein and Adolf Hitler.

Maybe we can all agree that God loves experimenting. The proof for this line of thought is the constant flux that we are living in. The only thing constant is change.

One ancient Persian saying goes something like this “…there never has been, there never will be and there never is a moment repeated in the history of time”. To my very human imagination, God could either be a scientist at work or a playing child. So, either He is experimenting and still exploring or He is just aimlessly changing things to have some fun.

Still don’t agree? Then the last reason might satisfy you. GOD LOVES CHAOS. He likes the way we remember Him and seek Him whenever we are in midst of a chaotic situation (please read the first line of the passage again). He seeks your prayer, your attention. We remember God when we lose someone, when we lose something, or when we are lost. We can safely say that we remember God mostly when our lives are out of control. We as a breed have realized this that things work our way if we keep in touch with the Creator. Over the period of human evolution, He has realized that only chaos and complexity can prevent Him from being obsolete or forgotten.

Now, the next time you are late, in trouble, or surprised, just think that God is at work.