[Darris McNeely] Remember the old saying, "It's not nice to fool Mother Nature"? Interesting commercial that it made, a number of years ago. But what about "Mother Nature"? What about the cataclysms that we see around us all the time? We're just passing through the springtime tornado season in the United States. A few weeks ago we had a very tragic mudslide that took a number of lives out in the Pacific Northwest. In a few months we will be into the hurricane season here in the Western Hemisphere and a potential destruction of property and loss of life that comes with that. Nature is a powerful force on the planet earth. We have no control. No matter how well we may predict something such as a tornado, we have no control over what takes place. It led to someone saying recently in an article that – "Save yourself," they said, "nature does not care for you." Save yourself, nature doesn't care for you. Now, that just kind of makes an impersonal matter about nature, and that's true – as I said, we don't have control over what takes place.

The power of nature – whether it's a tornado, a storm, a hurricane, an earthquake, a volcano – on this planet is devastating, it's awesome, at times it's unimaginable. We have no control over it. And yet, life goes on on planet earth every day, and it is the only inhabitable planet in the entire solar system, in the entire observable universe. In fact, when you look at the statistics that show just how finely tuned earth is to allow for life – human life, plant life – on this planet, it is amazing. Other planets within our solar system – uninhabitable. On Mercury, for instance, the temperatures exceed 800 degrees Fahrenheit. On Neptune, minus 370 degrees Fahrenheit. And on the planet Uranus, winds regularly are clocked at up to over 350 miles per hour. The earth is finely tuned by God to be inhabited by man and by life. And that certainly makes it an exception. And that shows us really, God does care. Though "Mother Nature" – nature and the forces on this planet – are very powerful, God does care.

There's a scripture in the Bible that illustrates this. It's the story of the apostle Paul in Acts chapter 27, who's making a trip from Palestine to Rome. It's a famous chapter and story in the book of Acts, where Paul makes this trip as a prisoner to Rome. The ship that he's on goes through a major storm and it is talked about in a few verses there and a very vivid description is given as to the ship being caught up. It could not head into the wind. It was running under the shelter of an island. They had to strap cables around the boat. Days and days went on with the intense storm. They had to throw matters on the boat overboard to lighten the load on the ship, and they were about to be shipwrecked at that particular point. Later they were. But Paul stood in the midst of them, and he basically said, "Look, I have had a vision that God has made us a promise that we will arrive safely and intact at our destination." (Acts 27:13-44)

And I think that this story does show us something that God does care for us. God does watch over us, and though we may at times be caught up in the uncontrollable whims of the force of nature on this planet, we can trust in God because He does care – and conditions of life on this planet and God's individual attention at times to our own lives testify to that fact. Let's take heart in that. It is a very encouraging and a comforting truth of God's word.

That's BT Daily. Join us next time.