Faith and a Tesla Ball

There is a singular reality of physics that helped me to understand the issue of the Almighty and of God. I discovered it in Fifth Grade. The importance of the dialogue was lost to me for decades.

At a school science assembly the presenter was showing a Tesla ball, one of those electrical bad hair days. He was explaining how the strands of electric charge would go towards places on the glass with differing charges, such as when your hand touched the edge and changed the charge.

His point was: "We are creatures of energy".

Well, this fifth grader had just learned two things: (1) atoms are comprised of protons, neutrons and electrons, (2) E=mc2.

The question? What is the composition of a proton? What makes up the smallest of particles?

The answer is unfathomable, too deep, too real, too scary for the scientist to fully explore. Why? because at the core, matter is just organized energy. Einstein said so, every honest physicist will agree. What they will fight, and the dawn of faith in this fifth grader discovered, was that the organizing principle cannot be of this physical plane. It must be other, over, and absolute.

Or as John 1 says, all things are held together by the Logos: Christ.

The only reason matter exists is because the Other, our Christ, chose to organize his own energy into a form. The ancient text describes the event as "ex nihilo", out of nothing... then something. This is my proof for the existence of God and my reasoning for the divine quality of Scripture.

All of man's works pale in the view of the preservation of a single atom. If that bond could be broken the amount of energy released would power our dreams forever. Nuclear power unleashes the energy of the bonds between protons, neutrons and electrons. What if you could unleash the very energy OF those particles? What if you could release the binding power of energy itself? The release from a single molecule could power your car, or intergalactic flight, based on space trash.

The assembly presenter was right on many levels: we are creatures of energy. The very stuff of matter is nothing more than energy that is organized.

And so, I believe in an omnipotent Other, who must organize, be devoted to, and be invested in matter. I believe in God. I believe in Jesus the Creator. All from a fifth grade science assembly.