Where I am, there He is... and where I'm not... He still is.

Isn't that beautiful! Well, fascinating anyways. :)

Today in chemistry my professor was explaining about the primary, secondary, and tertiary structures of proteins (which is what all those loopy colors above are). Here's how he explained it:

Primary structure was like our perspective from standing on the ground. We see individual buildings and streets with cars etc. But we can't see the big picture because our view is blocked by tall buildings or natural obstructions like hills and forests.

Secondary structure is like standing in a tower 150 in the air. Everything looks totally different from up here! You can see the layout of the city, the connections of the streets, traffic patterns, and topography.

Tertiary structure is like the view from outer space. You can see the whole big picture and it's astoundingly beautiful. But you can't see the deep green leaves. Or the sunsets over the Pacific. Or a baby's first smile. Or feel the clean rush of a mountain creek. You get the privilege of seeing our globe in the context of the solar system but you lose the ability to see the details that make life so beautiful.

Sometimes God lets us see life from a tertiary perspective. He gives us a glimpse of how the past, present, and future meld into a grand, flowing river called time. He allows us to see, in a tiny part, what He sees.

And then there are times when we stand 150 feet up on a mountaintop of faith and we see life from a secondary perspective. We can feel the refreshing breeze unobstructed by valley living. We the feel the sun more intensely. We look down from lofty heights and see why we had to come the way we. We see what we could not see from below.

But most of the time we see life from a primary perspective. From on the ground. From in the trenches. We can't see over the next hill. We can't see around that tall building. We can't see the end of the road. Our greatest joys and biggest enemies are right in our face, walking our ground, breathing our air. And every step, every move, every breath, is taken in faith because that's the only way to survive. That's the story of being human.

But, HALLELUJAH! God isn't confined by our perspective! He sees us in all three perspectives. He puts us in the trenches to learn and leads us up the mountain and, occasionally, transports us to space. He Himself experienced all three in a God-Man sort of way.

God is in the primary.

And in the secondary.

AND in the tertiary.

Elementary yet astounding. Known yet not grasped. Simple yet hard to believe...


Who knew chemistry could be spiritually enriching? :)