Hydrogen Atom as Icon

“As for me, I shall behold your face in righteousness; when I awake I shall be satisfied, beholding your likeness.” Psalm 17:15

The longing to see God permeates Scripture. Jesus said, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.” (Matthew 5:8) Søren Kierkegaard built his book Purity of Heart is to Will One Thing around the idea that if the only thing you actually want is to see God, you will see God. Jesus also told his disciples, “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.” (John 14:9) Of course, The Ten Commandments prohibit physical images of God as idols. (Exodus 20:4; Deuteronomy 5:8). So this is not a physical sight but a spiritual longing and vision.

The Eastern Orthodox understanding of icons is not that they are pictures to look at as though they were images of God, but as windows to look through to perceive spiritual realities that cannot be seen physically. As I contemplated Psalm 17:5 and my passion to see God, I thought that perhaps the hydrogen atom might be an icon through with I can see God’s simplicity and unlimited possibilities.

One rather simplistic insight of the Big Bang Theory of the origin of the universe is that the first atoms created in the Big Bang were hydrogen, one proton and one electron. The postulate is that all of the principles and forces necessary for the diverse complexity of the universe is embedded in the simplicity of the hydrogen atom. In my own lifetime I remember reading some scientific skepticism about the Big Bang Theory because it was too much like Genesis 1:3, “Let there be light,” since the presupposition was gradualism rather than an instantaneous event. But as the Big Bang Theory gained both wider scientific and popular acceptance, some suggested, perhaps tongue in cheek, that God is/was a hydrogen atom (or that a hydrogen atom is/was God). This was before the Higgs Boson was nicknamed the God particle. Theologically, the Ten Commandments would certainly condemn such as equation as idolatrous.

However, as I meditated on Psalm 17:15, I considered the possibility of looking through the hydrogen atom as a window into a deep spiritual reality, rather than looking at the hydrogen atom as though it was equivalent or interchangeable with God. Psalms 19:7; 116:6; 119:130 speak of God’s special care for simple people (in contrast to Proverbs that uses simple to contrast with wise people). When I find my mind (and soul) getting boggled by what I cannot grasp, I have often turned to Psalm 131:2, “I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother,” and envisioned myself curled up on God’s lap content as in a mother’s embrace.

The utter simplicity of the hydrogen atom – one proton, one electron – shows me this simplicity of God. God doesn’t expect me to understand everything but to rest in Divine simplicity. But if, as the Big Bang Theory proposes, all of the unlimited and complex diversity of the universe rose of such simplicity, can I not perceive that out of God’s simplicity grows an ever expanding profundity that will always be beyond all human explanation, certainly beyond me. As I reflect on this, awe prompts worship to arise from me to be lifted toward God.

This meditation that began with and returns to Psalm 17:15 suggests that as I contemplate the juxtaposition of God’s simplicity and unlimited possibility I am getting a spiritual glimpse of the face of God.