Have you ever wondered what life is all about? It is a fascinating and awesome endeavour to look a little deeper on how life and nature around us work like clockwork.

From the huge cosmos all the way down to molecules and atoms, from DNA to enzymes and nutrients, everything seems to work together. Already the writers of the Bible were amazed about the systems of nature.

“When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the Moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them?” (Psalm 8:3-4, NIV)

My bride and I are blessed with three grandchildren, Finn, Louis, and Ruby. They bring back to us the miracle of life, like three decades ago when we had our own children.

Can you imagine that the whole physical development of the person is already encoded from the day of conception? Somehow cells that are formed get the information from the DNA whether they should develop into bone, taking a very particular shape depending on the position within the embryo, or develop into a brain cell, a liver cell, muscle or other tissue. Wow.

Psalm 139 expresses this awe like this (verses 13 to 18, NIV): “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.

“My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.

“How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them. Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand — when I awake, I am still with you.”

Thus, even before man knew all about the ways things work together, people of wisdom understood the magnitude of life. We are perfectly designed, and the blueprint is encoded in every cell.

We are also well adapted to our world. The oxygen content (around 20.95 per cent) in our air is just perfect, not only for us, but also for all life around us and for safety. If it was much higher, every little spark would erupt in explosion, if it was much lower we could not breathe.

Even trace gases like carbon dioxide (used to be about 0.03 per cent and is nowadays around 0.04 per cent) have their function. Most plant material does not come from the ground, absorbed by the roots, but from that carbon dioxide in the air.

Photosynthesis breaks open the molecule and lets the carbon react with hydrogen from water (which comes via the root) and oxygen. The remaining oxygen is released and we can breathe it in, to have it combine with carbon dioxide with the nutrients we eat.

We have not even touched on the many other ways in which nutrients and biological building blocks get constantly recycled in nature in order that life can continue on Earth.

Gravity keeps us not only on the ground, no matter where on Earth we are (it is a misconception that Australia is “down under” and those poor folks have to live upsidedown) but also keeps the Moon in its place and the Earth journeying around the Sun.

Our magnetic field together with the outer layers of the atmosphere protects us from harmful electromagnetic waves (most of the UV, but also X-rays and gamma rays) from outer space, and creates northern lights at times, like last week all over the northern hemisphere.

We are just one part in this magnificent system. The Bible tells us in the mythological stories of Genesis that God created (Gen 1 to 3) all this order to make life possible for us. Some folks put those stories away as “fairytales” and thus not true, but they misunderstand truth for reality.

The authors of the Bible had a very difficult task from God, to write down his eternal truth in a way that it could be understood not only by 21st century academics, but also by a shepherd 3,000 years ago, who had no concept for millions or billions of years (he might have asked: “Is a million more than the sheep I have?”). He also had no way to understand bacteria, nutrients, or any of the many processes that are going on every second inside and outside our bodies.

So the important content, the part that is eternal truth, is that God had a plan, that God overcame the chaos with rules and orders (we call them laws of nature) and put everything in place that man could not only live in this world but thrive and develop into the crown of creation.

Mind you, all the laws of nature man found out over the last two or three centuries have been in place even before we knew about them.

Man was not ready for so much knowledge. Some are still not ready for it today. But the awe and fascination has always been there. Even scientists today often stand just in awe and many of them are actually people of faith. There is no contradiction between faith and science.

Once this awe is there, we might get a little glimpse of the greatness of our God, how awesome He is, who is surpassing all our understanding, and at the same time has such eternal love for us. God invites us to trust his promises and rely on him as we continue to do what we are called to do and fulfilling our purpose.

• Karsten Decker was the pastor of Peace Lutheran Church in Bermuda from 2010 to 2017, and after returning from Germany is now the temporary pulpit supply at Centenary United Methodist Church in Smith’s