By Tom Wacaster
I never cease to be amazed at the overwhelming evidence of design that so engulfs our world. Only the fool would say there is no God. I recently came across this little tid-bit of information regarding water. It serves as a constant reminder that "God hath not left Himself without witness." "Water is one of the most plentiful and, at the same time, most necessary substances on earth. Obviously, we know that it is necessary to drink six to eight glasses of water per day to have good health. We need water for cooking, for cleansing and many other essential daily functions. However, water has many more essential properties and necessary functions beyond what we normally think. Water has the property of absorbing vast quantities of oxygen at low temperatures. This makes life possible for the creatures of the seas and the lakes. Water has the unusual property that its maximum density is at four degrees centigrade, just above freezing. All other elements and compounds continuously expand when heated and contract when cooled. Water expands when heated and contracts when cooled down to four degrees centigrade. At four degrees centigrade, however, water begins to expand again. Frustratingly, this is what causes our pipes to burst in freezing weather. Thankfully, however, this is what causes ice to float, thus, our rivers, lakes and oceans freeze at the top, but the water does not freeze at the bottom. This enables sea creatures to live and not be killed by being frozen in the water. If ice sank, the rivers and lakes would freeze from the bottom up and in their entirety. A related property that helps keep the water beneath the ice liquid is water's property of releasing great quantities of heat as it freezes. Normally, it requires one calorie of heat to raise one gram of water one degree centigrade. However, at the point of changing states from ice to water and from water to vapor or gas hundreds of additional calories of heat are involved. When water goes from liquid to ice eighty calories of heat must be extracted per gram to cross the zero degree mark. This property alone saves many pipes from bursting, but it also means that ice serves as an insulation, hence protecting the water beneath it and the life in the water and protecting those who live in igloos. 597.2 calories per gram are required to vaporize ice. To move water from the liquid state to the vapor state or gaseous state requires over 500 degrees of heat to cross the 100 degree centigrade mark. This property retains adequate heat in our universe to keep the whole earth from freezing and becoming one great glacier leaving no place for man and beast to live. These unusual properties of water are not characteristic of all other elements and compounds as one might normally think. It is these properties of water that make life as we know it on this planet possible."
The complex operation of this world, yea even the universe, has no adequate explanation separate and apart from Divine Creation. Before we close this little article we will point out yet one more characteristic of water not readily visible to those who disbelieve, or who do not study their Bibles. Water has played a major role in God's separation of the righteous and the wicked, from the universal flood of Noah to the watery grave of baptism by which men are separated from a sinful world today. Men may be ignorant of water's physical properties and suffer no ill effects. But if we do not learn and apply this last most single property pertaining to water, it will have eternal consequences. Think about it.
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