Mysteries of Breaking Glass

Isaiah 34:4
“And all the host of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll: and all their host shall fall down, as the leaf falleth off from the vine, and as a falling [fig] from the fig tree.”

Everything in the world is running down – nothing will last forever. It would be quite depressing if we didn’t know the reason for it and what God has done about it. 

If glass were perfect, it would be much stronger than steel. But glass is not perfect; its surface is full of tiny cracks, too small for the human eye to see. These cracks slowly creep along the glass. This is why a glass can be dropped several times and not break. Then one day it will shatter into a million pieces. Glass “remembers” every stress it receives. If you jar the glass, the cracks can grow quickly – as fast as 60 miles per hour!

Most amazing is that this behavior is so strange, considering that glass is not really a solid. Glass never truly solidifies from a thick liquid state. Sometimes you can even see the sag caused by the flowing glass on windowpanes that are over a century old.

We encounter the natural degeneration of the world every day. As St. Paul writes, the entire creation groans under the consequences of sin. But thank God that He refused to leave us subject to decay and death – for He sent His only Son to save us from every consequence of sin. In Christ there is no more death and decay!

Prayer:
Dear Father in heaven, I thank You that we have not been left to be victims of the degeneration in the world because of sin. I pray that for the sake of Your Son, Jesus Christ, You would help me to always remember this. In His Name. Amen.

Notes:
F. Flam. “Window on the Chemistry of Cracking Glass.” Science News, March 18, 1989, p. 167. Photo: A glass vase being created at the Reijmyre glassworks, Sweden. Courtesy of Jake73. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.