Of Minerals and Minutia
I remember when I took my first mineralogy class during the course of my undergraduate studies in geology back in Ohio. Mineralogy, is, you guess it, the study of minerals. It’s all about how different elements combine chemically to develop the building blocks of the rocks all around us. It includes the study of crystal forms, shapes, and all of the characteristics that make each mineral distinct from all others. Mineralogy is fascinating!
One characteristic of certain minerals, namely feldspars (which make up a significant part of many granites) is a process called “twinning.” As the mineral crystals develop, they often produce what are called “twins,” where there is replication of the crystal as it grows. Often this twinning looks like mirror-faces of the crystal, or perfectly straight striations, like parallel stripes within the crystal. Sometimes, this twinning characteristic is obvious (like in large, well-formed crystals), but most of the time you need a hand lense (or loop as they are often called). With the hand lense, you can magnify the crystal and see its intricate parts up close.
Once I learned that there was such a thing as twinning, and that it positively identified a certain type of feldspar mineral, I was empowered! I knew something that I did not know before. It was a great feeling. I actually had that feeling a lot of the time I was in my geology studies. At any rate, in the mineralogy lab, we had boxes of mineral specimens where we could learn to make identification and learn all of the characteristics of each of the most common minerals.
One day, as I walked home from class across a parking lot, I looked down and saw a piece of granite on the ground. I picked it up, and having my new-found knowledge of mineralogy, and also my hand lense, I took a look up close. Do you know what I found? Twinning! I had walked over granite a lot in my life, and never knew about twinning. But now I knew. I was so excited; I bought it home to my Mom and showed her the twinning. I’m sure she was not as excited as me, but I was overjoyed to be able to show her.
Later in life, I left my career as a geologist and went to seminary to study for the ministry. Studying theology is not so different from geology, believe it or not. I learned many things that I did not know previously, and I was excited again. Just as I had learned mineralogy, and that helped me understand more about rocks, and that led to discoveries about how the earth works, in seminary, I learned about the original languages of the Jewish and Christian authors of the Bible, and it had the same effect. Actually, nearly all of the Bible’s authors were Hebrew, and they knew Hebrew as their first language, even though for the New Testament, they wrote in Greek. So I started my language learning with Hebrew (most students only took Greek, for some reason). Suddenly, not unlike the twinning-discovery, I was opened to a whole new world of the Bible’s authors, how they thought, what words they chose to use to describe things, and many new insights suddenly popped out. The Bible that I had been reading since I was 11 years old suddenly became more exciting and interesting!
We tend to walk, or rather run, through this world, leaping over the fine details of our lives and the things we hold and cherish most. We rarely stop to think, meditate, and ponder. There was a funny, but ultimately sad, film a few years ago called, “Click.” Have you seen it? It was about a young man (Adam Sandler) who was in the middle of his career, with a beautiful wife and two children. But he was a workaholic and did not seem to have much time for his wife and kids. One day, he met what he thought was a store clerk who gave him a remote control. This remote control was magic, and could be used to skip over the little distractions in his life (the hard things we all have to deal with), and move on to what he thought were the good parts. Eventually, he skips so much that he loses control and misses his entire life. He ends up at the end wishing he never had that remote control.
The author of Ecclesiastes (3:9-13) writes,
“What profit has the worker from that in which he labors? I have seen the God-given task with which the sons of men are to be occupied. He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also He has put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end. I know that nothing is better for them than to rejoice, and to do good in their lives, and also that every man should eat and drink and enjoy the good of all his labor—it is the gift of God.”
Today, let’s heed the call to consider what the Lord had done for us, the things He has blessed us with, and the small things. Take time to stop and ponder. And rejoice!
