In All of God's Wisdom

The first “scary” movie I remember watching was The Day the Earth Stood Still. I reluctantly went to see it at the theater with my neighbor Don Boynton.Don was a year older and a lot braver than I was and he talked me into it. Actually, I think my sisters took me to a scary movie before that; something about a man who, due to an unearthly phenomenon, grew to a huge height and wreaked havoc on an unsuspecting public. But, I don’t think you could say I “watched” it. I had my eyes covered through most of the movie.

Somehow these early movie experiences made me a Sci-Fi fan. One of my favorites is H.G. Well’s classic, War of the Worlds. I first saw the 1953 Americanized movie version of the 1898 British book. It begins with unexplained flashes of light emanating from the planet Mars. It would later be discovered that these flashes were actually the result of the launching of a Martian invasion force headed for an attack on Earth. The Martian forces were so technologically advanced there was no stopping them. That is what made the story so frightening. In fact, in 1938 Orson Wells narrated a radio version of War of the Worlds. The format of the broadcast was so much like a newscast that many listeners believed an alien invasion was actually happening and began to panic. There was also a television version of the story and the 2005 Tom Cruise remake; neither of which measured up to the originals .

The book and movies end with the Martian invading aircraft mysteriously losing power and crashing into the ground. What happened? These unstoppable powerful invaders were being overcome and dying, but by and from what? The answer was simply, by bacteria; bacteria to which human beings had long ago become immune. As Wells wrote, “But there are no bacteria on Mars, and directly these invaders arrived, directly they drank and fed, our microscopic allies began to work their overthrow. Already when I watched them they were irrevocably doomed, dying and rotting even as they went to and fro. It was inevitable.” The Martians had succumbed to the effects of microbes which were harmless to humans. Then comes my favorite line from both the book and the movies. The Martians were dead “…slain, after all man’s devices had failed, by the humblest things that God, in his wisdom, has put upon this earth.&r dquo;

Recently, I read an article by environmental writer, John Carey on Yahoo! News that stated, “Nearly two weeks after BP finally capped the biggest oil spill in U.S. history, the oil slicks that once spread across thousands of miles of the Gulf of Mexico have largely disappeared.” Where did it go? The article goes on to say that maybe as much as 40% of the oil evaporated when it hit the surface and recent high winds and storms accelerated the evaporation process. Some of the oil sunk into the sediment on the ocean floor. A small percentage of the oil (1 to 2%) has been skimmed by the 4,000 boats in the cleanup operation. What has happened to all the rest of the millions of gallons we have watch flowing into the gulf? “Perhaps the most important cause of the oil’s disappearance, some researchers suspect, is that the oil has been devoured by microbes. The lesson from past spills is that the lion’s share of the cleanup work is done by nature in the form of oil-eating bacteria and fungi. The microbes break down the hydrocarbons in the oil to use as fuel to grow and reproduce. A bit of oil in the water is like a feeding frenzy…” In other words, “…after all man’s devices had failed, by the humblest things that God, in his wisdom, has put upon this earth.” Thank the Lord; God is still cleaning up our messes.