Water has been called “the most UNCOMMON of the COMMON substances.” What a marvelously versatile substance water is!
When its temperature drops below 32°F (0°C), water molecules lock together in a tight and hard embrace called ICE.
Think of all the beneficial uses for ice in our personal lives and economy.
In another form, water covers the land with a dry, protective blanket of snow in the winter, and piles up ton after ton of stored water in the valleys of the mountains.
It falls as rain to quench the thirst of the dry earth in the spring and summer; it feeds our rivers and fills our oceans and lakes.
It shades us from the heat of the sun as vapor in the clouds. As steam it drives powerful machinery.
Truly, water is one of the greatest gifts of God to man.
We all know that a world without water would be lifeless, but a world in which water followed the customary laws of physics would also soon become lifeless!
Water, unlike any other substance (except bismuth), is heaviest at 4 degrees centigrade—slightly above freezing. Above that and below that it is lighter.
Because of this, ice floats and water freezes from the top down.
If ice were HEAVIER than water, instead of lighter, when a lake froze, the ice would sink and the water would soon be solid ice from the bottom up.
All rivers would freeze solid! This would kill all fish, prevent thawing in the spring and so upset the scheme of things as to make life on Earth impossible.
Who changed the law that cold contracts and heat expands, when it applies to water?
The Creator designed it so.
Water has many other virtues that make it indispensable for a habitable Earth.
Water is nature’s best “air conditioner.” Water has an immense capacity for storing heat energy. Thus, the oceans can absorb enough heat during summer to cool the air, and during the winter this heat is given off, thus moderating the cold weather.
Though sea water weighs 800 times more than air, when it is vaporized by the heat of the sun, it is lighter than air and is lifted into the cloud!
This remarkable miracle makes rain possible.
Ages before the modern science of meteorology, the Bible revealed the “rain cycle.”
The Bible says…
“…The wind whirls about continually,
And comes again on its circuit.
All the rivers run into the sea,
Yet the sea is not full;
To the place from which the rivers come,
There they return again.” —Ecclesiastes 1:6-7 NKJV
Modern science explains this amazing water cycle described in the Bible.
“The energy of the sun received on a square mile of ocean will evaporate and raise about 5,435 tons of water vapor into the air in an hour.”
“Water vapor rises to considerable heights and moves with the air currents (over the continents).”
“When the air holding water vapor cools, the vapor condenses into billions of tiny droplets, so small it takes about 8-million to make a fair-sized drop of rain! …Each of these tiny droplets must have a tiny particle of dust on which it clings.”
“As this condensation takes place in the atmosphere, clouds are formed; when the air has been chilled sufficiently to form clouds these tiny droplets coalesce and form larger drops, and when the air can no longer support them, it rains.” (Condensed from Science Digest)
Then too, water is “the closest approach to a true universal solvent” that we know. It dissolves with ease a fantastic variety of materials, and yet it does NOT dissolve the rocks of the seashore, otherwise the continents would melt away and disappear in the oceans.
Did all these strange and wonderful characteristics of water just happen? Hardly. Water with all its marvelous characteristics is one of God's creations.
“And God said, ‘Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.’ And God made the expanse and separated the waters that were under the expanse from the waters that were above the expanse. And it was so.” —Genesis 1:6-7, ESV
Learn more about water and weather
What causes a rainbow?- What are some weather extremes on Earth?
- How might rain forest destruction affect our weather?
What is lightning good for?
Do certain trees tend to attract lightning?
Why does wind make sounds? (read and listen)
Further information for teachers and parents…
- Has our atmosphere evolved over time? How should the creationist view the formation of the atmosphere?
- Does God control the weather? Does He send deadly storms? Are “natural disasters” truly ordained by God, even though they sometimes kill thousands? What does the Bible teach?
