Through Him, All Things Hold Together

I have long been fascinated by how things hold themselves together. This fascination might have been part of what led me in my undergraduate mechanical engineering studies to really gravitate towards the beam analysis and machine design portions of that curriculum, and which in turn led me to ultimately pursue structural engineering. Why is a steel beam able to carry more load than a wooden two-by-four? Or why does a two-by-four have more rigidity when it is oriented in its vertical (i.e. portrait) configuration than it does when it is rotated 90-degrees to its horizontal configuration? Or why does a tiny wire have the capacity to carry hundreds of pounds in a hanging configuration but then buckles under only a couple pounds when the load is reversed to push on that same wire? All these simple observations are related to how structures hold together and are part of what we often technically refer to as the “mechanics” of materials.

God has given me the privilege now of studying, applying, and teaching these basic structural behaviors for my entire working career. And I suppose after a few years of researching bridge structures, several years of designing large industrial structures, and over seventeen years of talking about and teaching others how to design these structures, it might be easy for me to take basic structural behavior for granted. In fact, I have to admit that many times I certainly do just that. When I stand on the floor in my classroom, I expect it to hold me up, and I don’t typically take the time to think about it, unless I happen to specifically be talking to my students about that floor’s flexural capacity. When I sit in my office surrounded by my bookshelves, I expect those shelves to continue to be rigid and keep holding up those hundreds of pounds of books. When I ride my bike down a concrete path, I expect that path to support my bike tires and my bike frame to hold me up. But in my more contemplative times, as I teach and reteach basic mechanics principles, God opens my eyes to His beautiful design in His creation. He shows me new ways to appreciate how materials behave and grows my fascination of how structures hold together.

Studying structural behavior now for many years in the environs of an overtly Christian institution has opened my eyes to how our basic language related to structural behavior doesn’t quite do justice to God’s design and care for His creation. We talk about how a beam carries a load, or how a structure holds itself together. But if we want to be precise in what’s going on, what we should say is that God holds these things together.

As Christians, we seem to regularly recognize how God sustains us as His people. We meditate on biblical truths such as Psalm 73:23 (“Nevertheless, I am continually with you; You hold my right hand”) or Psalm 139:10 (“…even there Your hand shall lead me, and Your right hand shall hold me”). But we are not quite as quick to recognize, appreciate, and meditate upon what it means that God doesn’t just sustain His people, but He in fact sustains things and is always sustaining everything. Consider, for example, Psalm 33:6-7:

⁶ “By the word of the Lord the heavens were made,

And by the breath of His mouth all their host.

⁷ He gathers the waters of the sea as a heap;

He puts the deeps in storehouses.”

We are fairly comfortable living in the context of verse 6, which describes God’s work in creation as having happened in the past. But verse 7 switches to present tense, and it is a little harder to wrap our brains around that one. What does it mean that God is right now acting in the physical aspects of His creation? Psalm 147:8 describes God’s active work similarly: “He covers the heavens with clouds; He prepares rain for the earth; He makes grass grow on the hills.”

Once our eyes are opened to God’s active, ongoing work in creation, we continue to see more illustrations and applications. The New Testament teaches us that Christ Himself is the glue for our structures: “[In Christ] all things hold together” (Colossians 1:17). In fact, it is Christ’s word that is the specific binding ingredient: “[God’s Son] upholds the universe by the word of his power” (Hebrews 1:3). Designing and using structures in the creation God has stewarded to us takes on new meaning when we recognize that His hand is the upholding power and His word is the particular cohesive provider.

The way that God holds material together can provide interesting life lessons. For instance, one basic structural property is that the load carried by a structure is more attracted to the stronger portions of the structure. To put it another way, God guides the load within a structure to its strongest portions and guides it away from its weakest portions. There are probably dozens of illustrations that could be derived from this basic mechanics principle; it is interesting to note how God cares for His people in a similar way as He cares for His structures. “God is faithful, and He will not let you be tempted beyond your ability…” (1 Corinthians 10:13).

Another basic structural principle provides a nice illustration of teamwork. When structural elements span between two supports, God uses teamwork within those elements to carry the load through them. One of the simplest examples of this sort of behavior is a truss structure; in a regular load configuration, the upper elements of a truss are in compression while the lower elements of the truss are in tension. The compression elements themselves would not create a successful span, nor would the tension elements, but teamed up together they become an efficient and beautiful load-carrying mechanism. Solid beams behave the same way when they carry loads over spans. The beam’s upper portion is in compression, and the beam’s lower portion is in tension, separated by a neutral axis that holds everything together. God uses all three actions of compression, neutral axis, and tension to make the beam work well. It is simple to apply this teamwork analogy at home, church, school, work, or wherever God places us in relationship with others.

In closing, God sustains structures in beautiful and fascinating ways. His upholding hand and His sustaining word are always at work, maintaining the physical structures of His creation and also caring for His people and His church. I pray that our eyes might be opened to God’s work around us and in us, and that we might experience even more joy and assurance in His provision for us as we live and serve in His amazing creation.