All Things, Great and Small
602,200,000,000,000,000,000,000 atoms
Chemists count atoms using the mole, 6.022 x 10^(23) or 6.022 times ten to the power of twenty-three. One mole of carbon atoms in the form of graphite weighs 12 grams, a pile of black powder heaped in the palm of a hand. An average adult body of 70 kg contains about 18% carbon by mass. That is 12.6 kg of carbon, 1049 moles of carbon, 6.3 x 10^(26) carbon atoms. It is hard to wrap our minds around numbers so large. And even at our best, those numbers are estimates. Each person has a unique number of carbon atoms in their body, based on mass, biological factors and even on whether the last moment was an inhaled or an exhaled breath.
But God knows exactly, for He knows all things! He knows every carbon atom to the precise number for each unique human body. He knows how the number changes, instant to instant, as digestion and cell building incorporate more carbon, as metabolism and breathing remove it as carbon dioxide. Jesus speaks of the hairs of our heads being numbered (Matthew 10:30, Luke 12:7) to illustrate God’s intimate knowledge and care for us. The One who knows all things knows me, down to the atom count.
What thoughts arise when considering such an intimate knowledge? Perhaps a moment of fear, for there is no place to hide. No one else can know us so exactly. Perhaps a moment of comfort, for the One who knows also cares. Perhaps a moment of wonder more mind-straining than understanding the size of one mole – that He is indeed the all-knowing and the all-loving God.
0.00000000014 m
A carbon atom is small, with a diameter of about 1.4 x 10^(–10) meters. About 700,000 carbon atoms lined up barely equal the thickness of one sheet of typical printer paper. It’s hard to wrap our minds around a size so small.
But God is there at the carbon atom. He is at each point defined by every carbon atom in our bodies, for He is everywhere at all points. “In Him we live and move and have our being,” Paul says (Acts 17:28) and often we let the words pass our ears with little thought. But this time, pause a minute to consider – God is there at that carbon atom … and the next one … and the next one …
What thoughts arise when considering such an all-pervading presence? Perhaps fear? All my ‘little’ sins are in the very presence of God, and I regret any action displeasing to the one I love. Perhaps comfort? He is present to me, when I feel it and when I don’t feel it, when I remember and when I forget. Wonder – most certainly wonder – at the nature of this all-present and all-loving God.
This chemist’s personal variation on the ideas of David in Psalm 139 might be this:
Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence?
If I expand to the size of the universe, you are there!
If I shrink to the size of the atom, you are there!
You hem me in, behind and before … such knowledge is too wonderful for me.
One mole of atoms for several different elements.