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Monday::Nov 11, 2024

The Great Circuit

I

've been playing around lately with a metaphor for Creation. The Theologians tell us that the universe was created by God, and God is its final end -- creation is ordered toward union once again with its creator. But in the midst of things, it can often seem like creation is "meaningless", headed nowhere in particular, that it has no purpose.

Consider an electric arc. Arcing occurs when a sufficiently strong electrical field suddenly converts an insulating medium (such as air) into a conducting medium, allowing an electrical current to be established as the gas turns into plasma. Just before an arc develops, as the electrical field is growing stronger and stronger, there is no electric current. Then, all at once, the electrons start flowing across the previously impassable barrier.

Imagine being an electron, wondering with the other electrons whether their movement is part of the Great Circuit, or just meaningless motion, going in any old direction at all. The proper response is that if they were not part of the Circuit, they would not be moving at all. Their movement is completely predicated on the Circuit being complete. Furthermore, as they move through the plasma medium, at various times (due to pressure and gas composition variations), they may not even appear to be moving in the "right" direction at all. But, due to the nature of the electric circuit, the end of their path truly is determined ahead of time, and it could not be any other way.

I propose, tentatively, that existence works in the same way. Creation presupposes purposeful movement in the Great Circuit back to its Creator. That we exist at all means that the End is decided, and no matter the twists and turns, God's Will will be done. Fiat voluntas tua.