The Complexity and Simplicity of God

...The pattern that Lewis describes is a beautiful pattern - after all, it is God's pattern, and God is the source of all beauty. God is the great One, the first One, the foundation of existence and fountain of creation. The pattern by which He brings new things into being makes Him not only Alpha, but Omega - not only the origin and beginning, but also the end and purpose of all things.

As the dance and pattern of creation unfolds, the tree grows upwards and outwards, and reality becomes more complex - from elementary particles and fields come molecules, from molecules cells, from cells living creatures. The physical complexity seems limitless, and this is just one movement in the Great Dance. Yet as God's plan continues to unfold, there is, I think, a simplicity on the far side of complexity, a unity the far side of diversity. Above the complexity of the stones is the simplicity of the whole arch, and beneath the complexity of, say, the body, is the simplicity and elegance of mathematics and physics. This undergirding simplicity and overarching unity is part of the pattern, and it too reflects the Creator. He is complex and diverse, yet also simple and One. Lewis, of course, says it best, and again in his words we find that image and analogy communicate something unique:

"Of many points one line; of many lines one shape; of many shapes one solid body; of many senses and thoughts one person; of three persons, Himself."

We have seen that God is the source and author of the pattern; here Lewis suggests that He is also the end for which all was made. The pattern is from Him, and it is also to Him.