Freak of Nature

This noun phrase is the simplest explanation for anything we see that is unusual or abnormal in creation. Man is supposed to have only one head, but when someone has two (conjoined twins), it’s a “freak of nature.” Then we think of the circus, which features a freak show.     

It is so convenient to use this wholesale, catch-all summary of things that go beyond the norm. 

Roses, for instance, come in all colors today than years back, because gardeners scientifically graft them. And yet, “freak of nature” happens. 

My niece, Vinya, uploaded this photo of a rose on her FB page.  Burgundy and white in one?! 

They are supposed to bloom separately. 

Quickly, I searched the Net to find out how this could have happened. (Man has this unquenchable thirst for an explanation behind any rarity.) To my delight, I find multi-colored roses that had been tinted and dyed by humans hands.  

But the undyed and untinted two-colored rose is surprising grace; not a work of man, but a gift of God. There is nothing freakish about it. There is a twin of Vinya’s photo online! Gasp.   

Just when we think we know how God acts to show His love for us, we behold something unexpected. 

Theologians say that the Bible bares everything about God’s love. He revealed Himself in creation (Romans 1:20) and in Jesus (the Gospels), and through the prophets and apostles. Unfortunately, our finite mind cannot grasp it all.

“Freak of nature” is one of those ungraspable—and unknowable and unmeasurable—acts of the Lord. That’s why for the Ephesians (chapter 3:19), Paul prayed, “May you . . . grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ . . .” 

The roses and all of God’s creation manifest His love for everyone. My eyes cannot see it all, so I depend on faith. 

Martin Luther once wrote, “God our Father has made all things depend on faith so that whoever has faith will have everything, and whoever does not have faith will have nothing.”