I recently saw a picture of basalt columns in Iceland and was amazed by how square and exact the columns were. Upon reading up on why that is, the best answer I can deduce is that it happens because of the nature of heating and cooling melted rock. Basalt is a volcanic rock that at one time was a hot, flowing liquid before a cooling process pulls the molten material toward a center point that forms the rock into hard hexagonal shapes.
Though I still don’t quite get it, I am fascinated by the beauty of this natural phenomenon. It makes me wonder: “If God can make these columns rise up from the ashy substance from a volcano, what else can he do?” A lot, of course. But so often we don’t give God the credit he deserves. We continue to think in our limited minds that we know best or we know how God goes about things.
The psalmist gets it right:
When I consider your heavens,
the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars,
which you have set in place,
what is mankind that you are mindful of them,
human beings that you care for them?
You have made them a little lower than the angels
and crowned them with glory and honor. —Psalm 8:3-5
We are only on this earth by God’s good pleasure. What he does and how he does things are still beyond our fully fathoming. We only get a glimpse of his vast ability and creativity when we see something like basalt columns. Yet this does not mean that he is not aware of us. By his great mercy, he crowns us with undeserved attention and significance. We are like the basalt columns, wondrously created and beautifully designed. And we stand shoulder-to-shoulder with those similarly formed as prime examples of what our God can do by his mighty hand.
And marvel of marvels, God even takes the form of a human being in Jesus Christ that all the earth might be redeemed from the ravages of sin by the liquid flow of his blood through his death of the cross, that a rock might miraculous roll away from his tomb to reveal him alive forevermore. Now that’s a rock formation worth celebrating!