James Henley: Does an omnipotent God mean that everything happens for a reason? (or possibly Machines vs. Trees)

(BTW. This post was written to the soundtrack of Nickleback's new album, All the Right Reasons - which is awesome by the way. It's a little early Licensing present to myself before Sunday)

It's been a week for Noomas somehow this week - saw two at college yesterday as well as seeing Kickball at the CU on Tuesday. It was part of the discussion that followed Kickball that got me thinking...

Does everything happen for a reason? And if it doesn't, then how can we reconcile this with an omnipotent God who "in all things... works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose"?

Is life a huge train of choices which God has made for us one after another for our own God? Even the things that are seemingly random and don't have anything to do with anything? And where does my own free will come into this? I can't help but feel kind of cheated out of it if that's the case.

It's a question which seems to instantly provoke huge debate - and to me it seems to be stuck in the contrast between two very different images, images which are locked in with the way we see the world (although feel free to disagree ;-)

On one hand, if our understanding of God causes us to have to believe in a God who is personally responsible - and takes responsibility - for every single detail in the way our world works, then our view of the world is a view of a complex machine, system, or even a formula. Every tiny variation, every small adjustment, must be towards a specific purpose or to achieve a specific goal - there has to be a reason (Of course, it works the other way - if our worldview is that of a complex machine, then...).

If the world is a machine, then God must be the master workman - every change must happen for a very specific reason, and this reason must be for the God of God's people.

But what if the world was more like a tree or a plant or a flower or something more organic. The tree has been intricately designed for a purpose, the tree is easily as detailed as the machine - if not more. However, if you were to try and predict the exact development of the tree, or write an equation to accurately define it's growth - then you would struggle. You would end up having to settle up with some vague sets of rules with which to define the tree, but you could never quite fully predict it - the tree is too organic in its nature, too unpredictable.

And what if God were like the sun in relation to that tree? The sun would move and shift, and affect the rate and direction of growth depending on how intense the sunlight was and what direction it shone from. The tree would still be organic and unpredictable, but the sun would still play a vital part in the tree's growth. If it moves then the tree will begin to grow in a completely different direction.

And who's to know what the subtle, seemingly miniscule effects that the changes in sunlight would have on the many different complex parts of the tree?

So what if God is less like the master workman (or woman), and more like the sun? The tree is constantly seeking to grow further and further towards the sun - the world drawn helplessly towards God, and towards reconcilation. Not everything needs to happen for a reason, however comforting it may be to think that it would - but we can rest on and hope in the knowledge that all things are being worked out for God's purpose. The tree can't help but grow towards the eternal source of its sustainance and energy.

Flawed analogy aside, how does that sit with you?