Christmas Fusion
Human beings need saving. That’s what Christmas is all about. What follows will contrast fission and fusion, two processes that generate energy, as a parable for humanity. New technologies are not going to save us. Only Jesus can do that.
As I write today, the cold embrace of winter draws near. Sunlight, the heat energy we most enjoy, generated by nuclear fusion in the Sun, is no longer sufficient to keep us warm now that our part of the globe is tilted away from our solar system’s star. Fusion is the way that the Sun makes power. In the core of the Sun, hydrogen is being converted (fused!) into helium. It takes four hydrogen atoms to fuse into each helium atom. During the process, some of that mass is converted into energy. All life on earth is the beneficiary as rays of sunlight touch us with this blessed gift.
During winter, when the gift of solar radiation diminishes, humans have found alternative ways to keep themselves warm for untold ages. We chop wood and burn it. We dig up coal and burn it. We discover oil and gas and burn it. In a pinch, we’ll utilize peat moss or even cow dung and burn it. There’s a theme here…
Burning is simply our ordinary way of describing the carbon-based version of the process of fission. Fission occurs when atoms split apart. When each atom splits, a tremendous amount of energy is released in the form of heat, light, as well as additional stray atomic particles that can initiate a chain reaction—which is what happens as a fire really gets roaring.
Fission happens everywhere on our globe. Fusion happens in the stars. Until this week, when scientists announced that a lab in California had successfully engineered a fusion experiment resulting in net energy gain. Imagine a process that creates more energy than it takes and leaves only clean, harmless byproducts. We’re likely decades away from the commercial benefits of this technological development, but this week was a promising first step.
In the world of spirit and emotion, fission and fusion also create energy. Fission happens whenever bonds are broken, or things fall apart. Anger, frustration, resentment, selfishness, pride, unbridled competition, and so on… are all energized by the constant undercurrent of sin in this broken world. Sin is fission on a spiritual level.
But there exists, at the center of our universe, a source of heat, light, and love that comes from an alternative energy engine, the spiritual fusion of love. Fusion occurs when two disparate elements come together to create a new thing. At the heart of God’s Word to us is this miracle: the human and divine fused together in Jesus. The result is abundant energy, enough to warm the hearts of every home and every body.
Science is not going to save us, even if humanity perfects the physics of fusion and we have perfectly free, clean energy.
Jesus is going to save us. Christmas fusion is the beginning of God’s metaphysical chain reaction that will indeed change the heavens and the earth.
Peace and Goodwill to you and yours,
Pastor Gregg