Pastor's Blog

Salt and Water: Examples of God's Finely-Tuned Universe

God created a finely tuned universe. Take, for example, God’s amazing invention called water. Water, as we know, is essential to all organic life forms in one way or another. We couldn’t live without it. But one of the unique traits about water is that it is denser in a liquid state than in a solid form. That is, the H2O molecules are more densely packed together (and thus “heavier”) as water (liquid), and more loosely packed together (and thus “lighter,” because there is more empty space between each molecule) when forming ice (a solid). This buoyancy is the reason that ice floats on water, which really is more than a way for us to enjoy iced tea. If water were like all of the other elements, lightest as a gas, denser as a liquid, and most dense in solid state, then ice would sink to the bottom. But God saw to it that water would defy the normal laws of chemistry and freeze from the top down. If you were a fish living in a pond through the winter freeze, this would become very important to you.

Almost as equally amazing as water is another common molecule called salt (NaCl). While its component parts are deadly in their purest form (sodium reacts explosively with water; and chlorine is a noxious gas), the naturally occurring salt mineral is a stable molecule, essential to life. In the Bible we find salt mentioned at least 25 times in the sense of a mineral. Salt was used as a flavoring, a preservative, a medicine, and in acts of religious worship, via sacrifice. Salt was also used culturally. It was both bartered and given as a form of payment (in the Roman army). The Romans applied salt to road beds in order to harden the dirt. Salt in the diet is also necessary to life. Today, salt has literally thousands of uses, from de-icing roads to softening water to bleaching wood pulp in the production of paper. Sodium chloride is another perfect example of God finely-tuning the universe for man’s use.