By Denny Wayman
“The profoundly ‘atomic’ character of the universe is visible in everyday experience: in raindrops and grains of sand, in the hosts of the living.” – Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
I know a young woman who, in her formative years, became a Lego expert. No matter how complex the project, she could quickly take these basic building blocks and create a masterpiece of beauty and function. Though these little blocks are differentiated into needed shapes, each always carries the necessary Lego structure that allows them to connect together into a multifaceted unity.
In a similar way, physicists have long understood that the entire universe is made up of atoms. These unifying structures are differentiated by subatomic particles known as electrons, protons and neutrons that themselves can further be composed of quarks and leptons. Thus, though the universe is multifaceted, it is nevertheless united in its structure and only requires energy to bring it all together.
This is also true of Legos. Though the building blocks are there ready for connection, Legos require the energy of my young friend to bring them together into a singular, magnificent creation.
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“If all things are created like Legos with connective structures making it possible to create both paradise and perdition, then we would expect this needed salvation would also be built with connections.”
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Creative Connection
It is here where we begin to understand Logos. When John builds on the first verse of Genesis and says, “In the beginning was the Logos, and the Logos was with God, and the Logos was God” (John 1:1 MNT), he was not describing the building blocks themselves but the mind and energy that put the building blocks into their places. Thus, John was making a distinction between matter, which is made of atoms, and the creative energy-mind that formed matter and its multifaceted elements. John specifically clarifies this when he says: “All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being” (John 1:3 NASB 1995).
But where the analogy is most helpful is not only in recognizing the transcendent mind that thought the universe into existence, but also in realizing that this Logos thinks in a way that creates unifying structures at its core in order to provide splendid complexity at its completion. Like Legos, which are inherently able to be connected, all created things in all forms, from a pebble to a person, are designed for connection and unity. All that is needed is the creative Logos and, it seems, a willingness of these same pebbles and persons to be connected.
It is this freedom that gives the possibility of love or the opportunity for chaos, of unity or division, of serenity or storms. Though freedom of choice is usually seen as only a characteristic of humanity with all the rest of creation living in required obedient order, there does seem to be a necessity of willingness to cooperate for even the winds of the earth to work together. Rushing into hurricane-forms of chaotic destruction, creation itself can connect in ways that misuse the natural laws meant by the Logos to create paradise. From cancer’s greedy cells to a ruler’s lust for power, these biological and psychological connections create alarming and deadly outcomes.
Though the fall of nature is directly tied to human disobedience, Paul observes that “the whole creation has been groaning together as it suffers together the pains of labor” (Romans 8:19–23 NRSVUE). Subjected to a disobedient will, the same building blocks that were meant for good by the Logos are now serving a chaotic purpose, making all things and beings in need of a Savior.
Unity of Purpose
It is here that our analogy reaches its zenith. If all things are created like Legos with connective structures making it possible to create both paradise and perdition, then we would expect this needed salvation would also be built with connections. We would expect that there is something built within humanity and creation by God that allows a profound and eternal connection. And we are not disappointed.
The Logos, energy/mind, came to earth to light the way to God. John says it: “In him was life, and that life was the light of all humankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” (John 1:4-5). By providing both the light and the receptive light socket, the light and life needed for a return to paradise connects everything to this Logos.
If this energy/mind interaction with all humankind is not only possible but also necessary, then the presumption that the Legos can connect themselves without it is not only mistaken but also a deadly darkness that the Logos came to reveal to us. This also means that those who choose to ignore the light and continue in that darkness are, by definition, unable to see the light or experience the enlightenment that the Logos brings and are, therefore, unable to know what they do not know.
I cannot imagine my young friend dumping out a box of Legos and expecting them to come together into a unified creation on their own without her mind/energy, yet that seems to be the expectation of many. It is up to us who know the truth and the Light to bring the Logos, incarnate in Jesus, into their lives to create the divine connection and unity of purpose we all desire.
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Denny Wayman, D.Min., served 40 years as the lead pastor of the Free Methodist Church of Santa Barbara and 10 years on the superintendent team (eight years as lead superintendent) of the Free Methodist Church in Southern California. He is the author of “Healthy Biblical Communities” and the discipleship trilogy “Discipleship Ecosystem,” “Toxic Discipleship” and “Rootbound.” He is married to Cheryl, a licensed marriage and family therapist.
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