Delta Design

Memphis Zoo. June 2015. Photo by Poor William

By POOR WILLIAM

“But ask the animals, and they will teach you, or the birds in the sky, and they will tell you; or speak to the earth, and it will teach you, or let the fish in the sea inform you. Which of all these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this? In His hand is the life of every creature and the breath of all mankind.” — Job 12: 7-10.

When I observe the earth, water, sky and all that has breath, I stand amazed, at least when I take the time to do so. Whereas many see years of natural evolution, I see amazing design and order—even among disorder and seeming randomness.

The Mississippi Delta affords a daily opportunity to see organicity arrayed in serendipitous splendor, from bullfrogs on a pad, to slithering snakes looking for a bite, to white egrets fishing the lake with eagle-eyed focus. Flora and fauna abound, no two days the same, and each and every sunset as spectacular and individualized as the one before.

We used to call it Creation, now mostly referred to as evidence of evolution emanating from some universal big bang blowup billions of years ago. How does order come out of disorder? Can a junkyard explode and a Commodore 64 or a modern day iPhone emerge from the Phoenix-like ashes?

Where does instinct come from? The need for fellowship? Where did gravity originate? How does one sperm and one egg through a strange, supposed-to-be-loving act produce a new life, in such a short time, with all the complexities of the human body and brain, rife with emotion, spirit, wild-eyed wonder and hope?

I look at what surrounds me, particular in an agrarian region, and I see design! I see order! I see goodness! I see life! I see the miraculous dance between individuality and conformity, between the singular and the corporate, between the sentient and the non!

“For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.” — Romans

Many views, theories, postulates, and strongly held opinions exist as regards the origin of what is, but I am simple enough and fortunate enough to often see what I believe to be God’s unparalleled effulgence. I see nature; I see God! But hey, that’s just me! Vaya con Dios and may God be with you! pw

Photos taken at Memphis Zoo in June 2015 by Poor William