Piper opens our eyes to a God “whose involvement in his children’s lives and in the world is so pervasive, so all-embracing, and so powerful that nothing can befall them but what he designs for their glorification in him and his glorification in them” (22). The fingerprints of the providence of God dust the whole of creation and humanity.

In Providence, Piper turns the natural lights down and the black light up, revealing something that may shock us: providence is quite literally everywhere in the room of Scripture. This book is a decisive “No” to the argument that God’s providence can ever be “out of sight, out of mind,” that within the pages of Scripture there is little to be said about it. I consider John Piper’s Providence to be its own black light of sorts. But does such an important doctrine rest on only the right interpretation of a few different texts? Are we grasping at straws to defend God’s “seeing to it” in all things? In defending a God of providence, the “usual suspects” of Scripture are consulted: Genesis 50, a few verses scattered through Proverbs, Matthew 6, Romans 8, Philippians 4. 12:7) a hyperbolic over-statement of God’s concern for the things of the world and humanity? 56:8) and knowing the hairs on our head (Lk. Is the language of God counting our tossings (Ps. Others would admit that God may see to it that certain things happen in certain ways, but perhaps not everything. Some wonder if God sees to it that anything happens in a certain way. There is plenty of contention surrounding the doctrine of God’s providence - God’s “seeing to it that things happen in a certain way” (30). Imagine being one of the participants, enjoying a nice meal, and then discovering this reality. But beneath what is visible lurked the reality of germs everywhere. It is easy to ignore or to downplay what we may not readily see. Just because germs might be invisible to the naked eye does not mean that they simply do not exist. The health officials behind this experiment hope to prove a point. It was shocking to see how the “germs” were all over people’s faces and bodies, splattered on the plates and cups.

After everyone prepared their plates, sat around the table and had brief conversation, the lights went down and the black lights emerged, to everyone’s disgust. Ten people walk into a buffet-style restaurant on a cruise ship, simulating a meal together, placing a substance on their hands to represent germs. I remember one such video, where a black light experiment was filmed in Japan. In the wake of a global pandemic, many videos have recently been surfacing (and re-surfacing) that intend to show the public how fast germs can spread.

Providence by john piper