129. After the Creation of the world God takes care of it?
God takes care of the world. This work through which God takes care of the world is called providence. By providence God keeps the world in its entirety and each thing and being and protects them and guides them towards good aims. Providence supports any good deed. It brought the prophecy in the Old Testament and the plan for salvation.
It is shown in all the works of the world from the smallest to the biggest ones God knowing them all and taking care of them, as the Savior says: `Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?` (Mathew VI, 26). Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care.` (Matthew X, 29).
God, says saint John Chrysostom, not only brought to light the Creation but after doing that He takes care of it.
If you say angels, archangels, heavenly powers, all the visible and invisible ones
all these are blessed with His providence. Without this work they all go and vanish. And saint Clement from Alexandria says: `the sight, the order and the perfect beauty of the visible things show us the divine providence.`
By providence God not only keeps but also guides the world towards a change in better. Saint Ephrem the Syrian says this about providence: `I saw houses and thought of the householder. I saw the world and I understood the providence. I saw ship without helmsman, sinking. I saw the deeds of men unfulfilled without God who guides them. I saw cities and republics having different constitution and I understood that everything exists by the order set by God. The flock is from the shepherd and the growth of all on earth is from God.
By providence God stops the evil and turns it into good as Dosoftei tells us in his Confession: `He knows beforehand the evil ones and He allows them, but He doesn’t take care of these because He didn’t create them. Once taking place they are led towards something useful by the endless kindness which without creating them, pushes them towards good as much as it stays in their power. God preserves and leads the world working together with the powers of the beings not without them.
