The Theory of Everything

You may think of this as strange, for a Christmas posting, but perhaps like the birth of one child long ago, it is just the start of the story.

I really don’t know of any trigger which started my mind, in recent weeks, remembering things of the physics textbooks I read so long ago, or more recent articles on the subject.  I was a physics major in college, earning a degree I never used, and sometimes thought of as wasted years.  But, as I’ve since learned, nothing in our lives is ever a waste --- we just don’t sometimes understand things happening to us, in the bigger picture of our lives’ purpose.

As I recall, physics can be split into the macro- and the micro-.  There are many theories and oft-proven equations to describe the big movements of the universe, the rotation of the earth and the movements of the stars, gravity, and even the Big Bang Theory on how it all started.  Einstein had one of the more well-known theories, The Theory of Relativity:  E-mc², explaining the relationship of matter, movement and energy.  But there are also many theories and oft-proven equations to describe the relationships among micro-things, like molecules, atoms, protons, photons, etc.  I personally like The String Theory, which seems less popular these days than it once was.  But what I liked about The String Theory was something Einstein was quoted as saying.  Einstein admired the complexity of the physical world, and how it so beautifully worked together.  He thought it amazing, and amazingly complex, yet he believed that these hugely complex things could be explained by simple explanations.  Beauty is both complex and simple, he believed. The String Theory is simple in that way.  His Theory of Relativity equation is an example of a hugely complex thing simply explained.

Einstein created his Theory of Relativity early in his life, and spent the rest of his life searching for what he called The Universal Theory of Everything.  Much was known about the big things of the universe; much was known about the micro-things, but the equations and theories describing them were largely different.  How could little things and big things --- which were made up of little things --- seem to operate so differently?  Einstein believed that there was a single theory, a simple equation, which could explain it all.  He never found it, and physicists are still seeking the answer.

This morning, the Bible Study guys took a break from their slow progress through the Letter of St. James and read and discussed the Christmas Story in Scripture.  Among many things discussed, the group leader quoted some Old Testament scriptures which he firmly believed pointed to King David having a hand in matters which ultimately led to the creation of the inn in Bethlehem, where Mary and Joseph visited.  A thousand years before His birth, God, through David, may have had a hand in the events of His Son’s birth.  All the things we read and discussed this morning pointed to the small events of Mary and Joseph, and Elizabeth and Zachariah, and the much larger events which ultimately came about.  But, in those early days as their sons were being born, who would have guessed that small beginning and its relationship to the huge plans of God?

These past two weeks I and people God has brought into my life have been hugely blessed.  And yet amidst of the joy, three people I casually know chose to confide in me deep, troubling secrets.  Their marriages were undergoing great difficulty.  Each revelation was a total shock for me, and I didn’t know what to say.  Why would these people confide their marital problems to me, a twice-divorced man, I wondered?  And yet in short order, God gave me words, events, and things which I shared with them, perhaps tossing lifelines into their stormy seas.  Now surely you are inclined to ask me: “So, what happened?”  Or, “What do you think will happen with them next?”  But don’t you see, that yours are the exact same questions that Mary and Joseph, and Elizabeth and Zachariah, were asking about the sudden troubling events of their lives?  Looking back, we can see what happened to them and their sons; it’s very well documented.  And, we can see the bigger purpose of the pains and sufferings they endured at the start of their life’s purpose.  But at that moment of their sons’ birth, they couldn’t see the sense of it.

And so, what of the troubled people God tossed into my life?  And what of the lifelines I tossed to them?  Will they be pulled out of their stormy seas?  If the Gospel parents’ stories are any example, I suspect the ropes I tossed to them may just be something to hand onto, while their storms continue.  I doubt they can quickly see or solve the bigger purpose of their problems.

Which brings me back to my physics question.  We live in the little things, our daily lives.  We see the bigger picture in Scriptures and even science.  But how does it all connect?  Why are the marriages suffering?  Why do some friends of mine suffer excruciating body pains?  Why do some others feel so alone?  How do these things fit into that bigger picture?  Where is the Theory of Everything which connects the big picture of our lives with the little picture of today?  We all seek the answer, the answer which Einstein described as being so beautiful in its simplicity.  We CRAVE simple answers.

I don’t know if mankind will ever find or understand the answer it seeks, but I have found one which satisfies me, something so extremely complex I could never understand the details, yet so simple I can’t but stand in awe at the beauty.  And I live in trust that I know the answer.

The answer is:  God.

q.e.d.

Are you sinking in troubled seas right now?  Look around, God may be using the least-likely person or event to toss you a lifeline.  Grab it, and hang on.  This is not the end of the story.

Merry Christmas!