Talk links God to patterns in nature like Fractals, Fibonacci, the Golden Triangle and motifs and patterns humans notice and incorporate into their lives.

1. Re
Nobody likes to think they are in a box. But we can’t help being
limited by our perceptions. If our perceptions are very rigid we
tend to feel the need to define and explain everything including
God Himself. Eventually we run up against something that doesn’t
fit in our box. Then we have to decide whether or not we want to
remain in the security of the box we know to expose ourselves to
something bigger.
THE
PATTERNS
OF GOD

2. “I want to talk to you about the One you already worship
without full knowledge.
The Lord of heaven and earth does not live in shrines
you can make and is not served by human hands as if
He needs anything.
He gives all life, and breath, and every thing.
From one he made from one every ethnicity and
appointed time and boundaries to them so that they
would seek God, perhaps, grope for Him
and find that he is not far from each one of us.
For in Him we live and move and exist.” - Paul, Acts 17

3. Paul pushed on the sides of the box when he explained the Unknown God to the Greeks in
Athens.
Our appointed time and boundaries are not the box. It’s when we shed the box that we find
ourselves groping for Him in the vast expanse of what we do not know.
Patterns and rhythms of life that are part of living and moving and having our being in Him.
These patterns are not nearly as defined as the reality our perceptions create for us from
inside our boxes. These patterns are instead the eternity in our hearts spoken of in
Ecclesiastes, the easy yoke we enjoy with Jesus, the mind of Christ that we have been gifted.

4. Fractals – recurring patterns in nature
A fractal is a neverending pattern that repeat on different scales.
In nature and in math. If you start by drawing a stick tree, then spit it into two branches, then draw
two more branches at the ends of each of those two.
Consider the idea of the infinitely recurring image of God branching and branching into all of
humanity. Infinitely recurring expressions of the nature of God recurring throughout different aspects
of our experiences.
He has set eternity in the human heart
Yet we have not found out
what God has done
from beginning to end. Ecc. 3:11

5. Chambered nautilus
seashell
Romnesco broccoli Air bubbles
DNA GalaxySnow melt channels
The point is that from DNA to galaxies there is replication in the patterns
of existence. When you start noticing this as you walk around and look
God seems to be everywhere all the time.
Not only does nature replicate these patterns, so do humans.

6. Humans are drawn to patterns, too

7. Japanese Pagoda
Hindu Temple
Village Layout in Cameroon
Cathedral of Milan
Ancient architecture, modern architecture,
even the layout of some villages in Africa,
constructed over many generations without
anybody being in charge, form an intricate
fractal pattern as a whole.
What's amazing is that humans recognized
this pattern intuitively long before
Mandelbrot came up with equations to
describe fractals in 1979.

8. Katsushika Hokusai
The Great Wave Off Kanagawa
1820
Leonardo da Vinci
The Vitruvian Man
1490
Long before Mandelbrot described fractals in nature in 1979
artists were incorporating the concept in design.

9. Ever since the creation of the world God’s invisible attributes,
eternal power, and
divine nature have been seen,
and understood
through what has been made by God.
Rom. 1:20

10. 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144
God expresses Himself and we notice.
The Fibonacci Sequence is another recurring pattern in nature.
We find it in the structure of our hearts, hands and stature and in the Mandelbrot mathematical set
that describes Fractals.
Back to the tree branches.
Every number in the Fibonacci sequence is the sum of the two previous numbers.
Trees branches grow according to the Fibonacci sequence.
The generations of bees as they reproduce by generations follow the Fibonacci sequence.
Because the sequence of numbers grows exponentially fast the sequence is used in programming
algorithms.

11. THE GOLDEN RATIO=1.618….
The ratio of the length A - B to the long part B - C
Equals the ratio of the long part to the entire segment of the line
The Golden Ratio, yet another recurring phenomenon that has to do with
proportions.
We find the golden ratio on a line segment by dividing the line so that
the whole length divided by the long part is equal to the long part divided by
the short part.
It’s also expressed using the Greek letter Phi.
Take your height measurement. Measure the distance from the top of your
head to where your fingertips end in a straight vertical line, not angled, then
take a ratio of those two measurements chances are it’s very close to 1.6.
The more people we measure, the closer to this ratio the average will be.
Humans are built according to the Golden Ratio

12. A Golden Rectangle is a rectangle in which the ratio of the length to the
width is the Golden Ratio.
The more Fibonacci you go on the rectangle the closer to the Golden Ratio you get.

13. When you put these proportions into rectangles with smaller squares inside them and keep dividing
them by the same pattern - like a fractal - These Golden Ratio or Fibonacci spirals appears in a
spiral that shows up all over nature. In galaxies, DNA, sunflowers, weather patterns, pineapples,
seahorse tails, nautilus shells
The ratio of width to length of a single double helix in a strand of DNA is 1.619, pretty close.
This universal constant of design
assures the beauty and unity of creation
so that things grow proportionately.
Another cool thing,
when we take any two successive
(one after the other) Fibonacci Numbers,
their ratio is very close
to the Golden Ratio of 1.61803
The golden ratio applies to these
natural phenomena which adhere
to fractal patterns.
Look at this picture itself.
Notice how the design breaks into
thirds horizontally and vertically.

14. In art there is a rule of thirds that which is a
guideline for design in art, architecture and
photography. As laymen, We look at a
picture or a design and don't know exactly
why it works but we know it's pleasing to
look at.
Important objects often appear on the grid
lines. or centered in one of the boxes.
This is why that grid pops up when you go
in to edit your photos on your phone.
In addition to the rule of thirds, artists use
the golden ratio as another pattern in
design. Both produce interesting and
pleasing compositions. It may be that
humans are genetically programmed to
respond to this ratio in the world around us.
Think about the pattern of God's own
existence and nature. Trinity.

15. FATHER SON SPIRIT FAITH HOPE LOVE
THE WAY THE TRUTH THE LIFE FASTER
HIGHER STRONGER STOP LOOK LISTEN
READY SET GO THE LION, THE WITCH &
THE WARDROBE LIGHTS CAMERA ACTION
OF THE PEOPLE, FOR THE PEOPLE, BY THE
PEOPLE HARRY RON HERMOINE READING,
WRITING, & ARITHMETIC EAT PRAY LOVE
STOP DROP ROLL THE GOOD, THE BAD &
THE UGLY MORNING AFTERNOON NIGHT
ROCK PAPER SCISSORS LIFE LIBERTY &
THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS VENI VEDI
VICI BODY MIND SPIRIT PAST PRESENT
FUTURE BEGINNING, MIDDLE, END 1-2-3

16. The Rule of 3
The rule of three is used in storytelling and communication too.
For whatever reason we tend to be able remember and repeat things that are presented in threes.
Fairy tales, jokes, stories, parables all use threes.
Preachers and public speakers are taught to use a 3 point outline in speeches.
Plays are divided into three acts.
Musical chords have three notes.
Threes happen in many mediums we use to communicate ideas.
Pattern is the way of the Trinity.
A priest, a Levite
and a Samaritan
walk into a bar…

17. The Son is the image of the invisible God,
the firstborn over all creation.
For in him all things were created: things
in heaven and on earth,
visible and invisible…
He is before all things,
and in him all things hold together.
Col. 1:20

18. Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that
when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is 1 Jn. 3:2
I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected into one that the world may know that You sent
me and love them as You love Me. Jn 17:23
The Golden Ratio is showing up in the Quantum Physics model relating to time while Fibonacci
relates to quantum entanglements. The patterns are there in the hidden, mysterious, emerging
universe that is quantum, that is grace as we now understand it.
This is just one of the mysteries emerging from the mind of God for us to grasp for.
ENTANGLEMENT

19. We all, with unveiled faces, beholding as in
a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being
transformed into the same image from
glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord
2 Cor. 3:18
The Nautilus grows, and as it grows,
its shell grows proportionally so that
no matter how large the nautilus becomes, the shell will always be the
same shape. It will always have the same mathematical proportions. It will
always adhere to the golden ratio. And yet it doesn't live in a static box but
in a container that grows with it.
Scientists discover patterns and concepts they don't invent them. Science
is observation of patterns and structures in nature and experimenting to
see if these patterns are regular enough to predict recurrence.
Math is a human invention, the language that we use to describe the
structures, principles and patterns we discover. All mathematical models
are approximations of reality. Our models fail, they go through a process of
revision, and we invent new mathematics as needed. We can look at
science and math from inside the box or from inside the shell.

20. The more we insist on boxes, the more definitions we write on the sides,
the more we confine our thoughts to what we already know and already think
we can prove the less wonder we experience.
Jesus does not come to exhaust the revelation of who and what God is
but he is the introduction into an ever unfolding revelation,
and ever unfolding experience that is larger than ourselves.
If Jesus is indeed the self-revelation of God,
then He is also the end of our concepts about God.
He is the icon that eliminates our idols,
our abstract theories with which we try to define the infinite and confine the limitle
- Andre Rabb

21. Belief is full of wonder. Belief includes what we know and what we do not
know. Faith is the substance of things hoped for and evidence of things not
seen. Faith is not proof or certainty. It's belief. It's trust. It’s grasping into the
unknown.
We grow in the spaces between our certainties. We have the mind of Christ
when our minds are flexible enough to discover wonders and recognize
patterns, when we leave our boxes for faith containers that grow with our
ever-expanding perceptions and expressions of God.
-Maureen Herring