“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord. Isaiah 55:8
Pattern is the highest expression of design, because it reflects the reality of the template that determines an object’s structure and gives it ultimate meaning.
The pattern of God’s covenant from start to finish is a reflection of the reality of its fulfillment in Jesus Christ, who is the archetype for all its promises. He is the sinless last Adam, the victorious Seed of the woman, the unblemished Lamb of God, the faithful prophet, the Good Shepherd, a Melchizedek priest, the Prince of Peace, Mighty God, and eternal Davidic King. Notably, He is also our kinsman-Redeemer who was made in the likeness of men to be a blood relation, so He could 1) pay the ransom price of death to free us from our slavery to sin, 2) marry the widow of God’s judgment, which is the church, 3) avenge it against the seed of the serpent, and 4) regain its forfeited inheritance of union and communion with God.
All these Old Testament covenant roles are fulfilled in Christ. His gracious work in the new covenant justifies us before God and grants us the privilege of being His adopted children, sharing in the original covenant promise of enjoying Him forever.
As for God, His way is perfect; the word of the Lord is proven. 2 Samuel 22:3
One of the most striking patterns of nature’s many repeating designs is the dendritic, or branching, formation that is found in a wide variety of the earth’s elements and environments. Although it is most commonly associated with the trunk-limb-branch-twig-leaf stucture of trees and vines, it is also seen in the river-stream-rivulet architecture of waterways, in the cardiovascular and pulmonary systems of humans and animals, and in many other realms of the created order.
The rock detail above, from the Zanskar Himalaya in Northern Kashmir, is about six feet high. The summit detail below, from the Hindu Kush range of Northern Pakistan, which mirrors the smaller pattern, is more than twenty thousand feet high.
From the end of the earth I will cry to You, when my heart is overwhelmed; lead me to the rock that is higher than I. Psalm 61:2