Many years ago I had a marine fish tank which took a lot of hard work to keep. I had to make sure it was always at the right temperature. I had to check the pH levels and ensure the lighting was correct. There had to be a constant movement of water circulating throughout the tank, I had make my own salt water and constantly clean every aspect of it, every week. And then of course I used to have to feed the fish, check them for diseases and make sure they weren’t killing each other. It needed my constant intervention and upkeep to maintain it. 

By contrast, I think it’s quite remarkable that the world around us regulates all of its systems autonomously. The Sun brings warmth, the rain gives us fresh water, plants and animals give us food, the wind and the earth’s rotation mix everything up and distributes sustenance. The great cycle of life keeps organisms in a perpetual loop of birth and death. Of course, life is sometimes tough, but all in all it’s a pretty darned good global fish tank we are living in.

When people talk about the hand of God, they usually mean a biblical God who doles out justice, is all powerful, and all knowing. They usually look for a divine hand, manipulating and controlling events in their life, sending messages, signs or protecting them from harm. But in my mind God’s fish tank is so brilliant, so perfect, that it doesn’t need His intervention. It may seem unjust at times, and I’ve written a deeper essay on the topic of good and evil here, but that we face adversity, that we face death, disease and the harshness of the elements, is part of the miracle of life. Death is an essential aspect of the cycle of renewal, while disease is a complex, wide ranging issue that serves important biological functions. It may seem harsh to us that bad people thrive at the expense of good people, but often these are subjective opinions. We hope that noble actions will be rewarded, and immorality punished, and we get upset when they aren’t, but I genuinely believe that ‘evil’ ends up consuming people, while goodness brings its own rewards. Think of the post-traumatic stress people suffer when they commit violent acts. Hate, aggression, violence, cruelty – they all consume us in the end.

We may desperately want God to intervene in our misfortunes, to cure cancers for example, but if God intervened in one life, it would have to do it in another, and another, and another. There would be no end to it, and suddenly you have no suffering. Without suffering, there can be no joy. Without pain, there can be no pleasure.

But what about imbalance? What about the unfair advantage some people get over others? From my own perspective, it has been a constant source of irritation to me, throughout my whole life, that I was born in a poor northern family, and was given none of the ‘leg-ups’ that many of my richer peers got. I’m also pretty annoyed that I am constantly plagued by chronic ailments, when others seem to have none. But this is just me moaning. It is me being self-centred and ungrateful. I’ve got a lot to be thankful for, a lot to be proud of. And anyway, the most important things in life aren’t monetary. The most important things are health, love, family, friendship, community, benevolence and kindness. I’ve been poor most of my life, and the nicest people I’ve met were usually the poorest. Those with the most material wealth are often selfish, arrogant and greedy. That’s an important design feature, right there.

I have to keep reminding myself that I’m living in the most amazing, incredible fish-tank that’s ever been created, and I am lucky enough to live in a prime spot within it. Yes, there are predators, people that would steal, maim, rob or hurt me at the drop of a hat. But there are many more good people, many more honest, kind people who would do me a good turn or at least leave me be. I think those people who look for Divine Intervention are looking in the wrong place. We don’t need to look for a miracle. We are living in one. It’s all around us, everywhere we look. A gigantic, universal, self-sustaining, fish-tank, that provides us with every natural element we need to survive. That’s quite a gift we’ve been Handed.