From waste to wonder ∙

From waste to wonder ∙

Then the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground. He breathed the breath of life into the man’s nostrils, and the man became a living person. – Genesis 2:7

Genesis 1:1-2

 1 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

 2 The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

Psalms 33:9 For when he spoke, the world began! It appeared at his command.

Regrettably, every year the world wastes a tremendous amount of edible food. How much food is wasted in America? To get some perspective, the rest of the world wastes about 1.4 billion tons of food every year. But that is nothing compared to how much food the United States discards every year. The amount is staggering, nearly 40 million tons, that is, 80 billion pounds. Putting it in other terms, each year 30-40% of the entire US food supply is thrown away. Where does most discarded food wind up? It goes into landfills. In fact, food is 22% of municipal solid waste (MSW). Food is the largest single component found in US landfills.  

It seems tragic. But what if something useless, could be turned into something useful? What if we could go from waste to wonder.

At Rice University, scientists perfected a technique for turning virtually any material into graphene. Graphene is a valuable new wonder material. It consists of a thin layer of graphite. It is considered one of the strongest materials known to man. It is 200 times stronger than steel.

How is treasure created from trash?

You begin with any carbon-based source material. Carbon is a primary component of all known life on Earth, representing approximately 45-50% of all dry biomass. The material is placed between two electrodes. A short pulse of electricity surges through it. It is instantly heated to 5432 ° Fahrenheit (3000 ° C). All non-carbon material is distilled out. All that is left is extremely hot carbon. As it cools, it automatically reconstructs itself as sheets of graphene. The entire process is almost instantaneous taking about 10 milliseconds.

This new scientific discovery was completely serendipitous. One of the grad students at Rice, Dewey Long, stumbled upon the technique while he was experimenting with carbon. The Department of Energy has provided a grant to scale up the process. A startup called Universal Matter was incorporated. Universal Matter intends to process waste, wasted food and garbage, and human waste, throughout the planet.

Thus, one of the new “miracles” of modern science is to create treasure from trash. But first, you have to have trash.

Scientists claim that one day they will be able to make life from dirt, just like God did.

There is a humorous story of a scientist having a conversation with God. The Father recalls how He made Adam from the dust of the ground (Genesis 2:7). The scientist boasts, “I can do that!” He gathers together what he considers to be the necessary materials from the “dirt” found around him. As the scientist prepared for his breakthrough scientific experiment, The Father watches in somewhat tickled amazement. Then the Father quips, “That’s my dirt, get your own dirt!”

Don’t forget that The Father not only made man from dirt, but He also made the dirt and everything else that exists.

REFLECT & PRAY

Isaiah 55:8-9

 8 “My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the LORD. “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.

 9 For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.

Father thank You that You are the one and only living God. No one is like You and never can be. You only have to speak, and it is done.

INSIGHT

The Father, the infinite, eternal, Almighty God introduces Himself to the human race with a bold statement of His power and creativity. His words describe the real Big Bang.

Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

“The effect of the opening words of the Bible is to establish that God, in His inscrutable wisdom, sovereign power, and majesty, is the Creator of all things that exist” (ESV Notes).

The Father tells us how things began. He simply spoke them into existence.

Genesis is pretty straightforward and repeats a simple phrase multiple times: “Let there be” or “let . . .” Whatever the Father spoke happened.

Psalms 33:9 For when he spoke, the world began! It appeared at his command.

Modern science has conjectured, postulated, and imagined the beginning of all things. They have no eyewitnesses. They have not used the scientific method. The scientific method is a systematic way of discovering information about our world and answering questions. Using the scientific method, you form a hypothesis, you test it, you analyze the results, and then either accept or reject the hypothesis.

Why hasn’t this been done with regards to origins? Simple, because it’s impossible to do so. So when it comes to origins, scientists are left with their best guess. Perhaps, it should be referred to as the “Big Guess,” rather than the Big Bang.

The Father’s formula is simple:

Nothing + The Father’s spoken word = Everything.

The formula of modern science is similar but strikingly different.

Which works better for you?

And Nothing + No one = Everything

As for man, how did the Father create him? The Father used dirt, simply the dust of the earth and His supernatural power.

Genesis 2:7 The LORD God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living being.

But first, He made His own dirt.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 2-23-2