thankful thursday - order

It seems like chaos is the norm is our lives.  The media, especially social media, is bombarding us with more information - fact and opinion - than we can process. There's the national election cycle  with who's in, who's out, and who said what. Much of the commentary is filled with name-calling, hatred and rhetoric aimed to escalate emotional responses.  Then come world events - terrorist attacks, financial crisis, sports news. Add in life - family, work, school, social obligations, health issues, financial burdens,... - and we have a perfect storm for chaos.

Living in a state of chaos can be fun, even exciting, for a little while. But pretty soon it turns from fun to frenzy as we become increasingly stressed. And we all know stress is not a good thing for us.

So what's the opposite of chaos? Order!

Order is defined as "a condition in which each thing is properly disposed with reference to other things and to its purpose; methodical." I like order. I like my things in their place where they belong, not strewn haphazardly around the house. I make lists so I can get things done efficiently and in the right order. I alphabetize my dvd's in genres.

Earlier this week I was feeling the chaos of the world as election hype dominated Facebook and the news. As I walked down to our mailbox, I was thinking about chaos and order.

And then it struck me! There is order all around me! The sun rises in the east and sets in the west. Every. Single. Day. The seasons follow one after the other. The planets orbit the sun in their determined paths. The stars are in their place in the heavens. Plants grow in a particular pattern and order unique to their specie creating beauty.

In high school I learned about a man named Leonardo of Pisa (called Fibonacci) who "discovered" a number sequence - 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55,... - where the last two numbers are added together to get the next number.  Squares whose side lengths are the Fibonacci numbers can be arranged in an ever-increasing spiral, a unique shape commonly found in nature. The seeds in a sunflower are arranged in this spiral formation. Pinecones and pineapples have a double set of spirals going in opposite directions. Petals and leaves of numerous plants are arranged in this pattern.

Although the bottom end of this shell is broken off, you can still see the spiral.

This isn't just order, it's mathematical order - precise and predictable!

I am thankful that God created our world in an orderly and precise manner.  And that creation mirrors that order. In the midst of chaos, there is order.