By Design

Spark, air, and fuel don’t just hang out, loitering around until they accidentally create horsepower. There’s plenty of science happening during every combustion event. This was a big deal in the low-revving, single-cylinder engines 120 years ago, when 2,000 revolutions per minute was just wild. In the engine powering the 1994 BMW 850CSi – a 5.0-liter V12 revving to 6400 rpm – it adds up to 76,800 combustion events per minute. Or 1,280 per second, all carefully controlled by the exacting authority of its twin Bosch MH-Motronic ECUs. 

If internal combustion was around in Isaiah’s time, he probably could have found plenty of material for his analogic prophecies. Instead, he drew analogies from plants. The treasure that is earth’s native vegetation – which uses the wonder of photosynthesis, the nutrients from living soil, and essential water in the form of rain – was the image Isaiah chose to explain God’s word. Plant growth is at least as complex as internal combustion, and designed with even more care. Soil, sun, and water don’t just hang out and accidentally create growth. They were designed by God to cooperate and synergistically create life-giving nutrients for animals and people. 

This careful design and life-giving growth is the point of Isaiah’s beautiful prophecy of God’s word:

“As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.” (Isaiah 55:10-11)  

God’s rain combines with his soil, his sunlight, and his water to make his things grow for his people. And not just people, but persons. Consider the distinction: God gives seed for the singular sower, and bread for the singular eater. He is not providing a buffet for an unknown mass of people, but individual sustenance for each individual person who comprises humanity. His sustenance ensures that you will grow, and not just grow for the sake of growth, but grow to “accomplish what [God] desires and achieve the purpose” he designed. 

God’s very word – the expression of his will, the manifestation of his power, and the tangibility of his love – is sent to earth with specificity. It is carefully planned, designed, and managed like each individual combustion event, among many, within a V12 engine. In the New Testament, John referred to Jesus as that very Word of God, the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy and of God’s love. Jesus frequently quoted the scriptures. He embodied God’s word and employed it for God’s purpose. By his teaching, healing, death, and resurrection, God’s Word certainly did not return to him empty. The achievement was life for everyone who believes (a mystery that is best explained by the analogy of seeds and growth; see 1 Corinthians 15:12-49). 

God’s provision, both for your physical and spiritual needs, is at work during each event in your day. Some events will seem fast-paced and frantic, like a 372-horsepower V12 engine nearing its redline. Some will seem agonizingly delayed, slow, or insignificant. Yet they are all carefully designed and intended for life-giving growth, not just for people but persons. You are one of those persons. So are the persons in your life, who could be reading these words and hoping for some growth in their lives. So, be sent, and witness the miracle of God’s growth.

The M70 V12 was BMW’s first 12-cylinder engine. As the company’s flagship power plant, it debuted in their flagship model, the 1988 750iL. The big 850i/850Ci/850CSi coupes all used some variation of it between 1991 and 1997, alongside a lovely V8, as BMW fine-tuned it to achieve various purposes. This specificity was evident when BMW built the most famous V12 engine of the ‘90s: the 6.1-liter, 627-horsepower unit powering the McLaren F1. It wasn’t created by accident, but by extremely careful and wondrous design.

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