LONG ago, King Solomon, a great observer of nature, and endowed with unusual wisdom from God, wrote:

“The sun . . . has flashed forth, and the sun has set, and it is coming panting to its place where it is going to flash forth. The wind is going to the south, and it is circling around to the north. Round and round it is continually circling, and right back to its circlings the wind is returning. All the winter torrents are going forth to the sea, yet the sea itself is not full. To the place where the winter torrents are going forth, there they are returning so as to go forth.

REPETITIVE CYCLES A BLESSING

There are certain factors of sameness that are essential for balanced human life. Consider some of the cycles of God’s creation​—sun, wind, water, seasons, and so forth. What if we could not count on the sun’s rising at a certain time in the morning? or if we could not be sure what season was to come next? There could be no planning, no real work accomplished. All would be confusion. In reality, it would not be long before we would begin to lose sanity.

There is another aspect in which the repetition of natural things is seen to be a blessing, in fact, a necessity. The earth is actually a giant spaceship. In its cycles of wind, water and seasons, it has its own magnificent purification system by which it can keep a supply of pure air, water and food for its inhabitants.

Consider earth’s water cycle. Only about 3 percent of earth’s water is fresh water, 2 percent being locked in ice caps, and only about 1 percent existing in the lakes, rivers and underground, and as vapor in the air. The oceans are salty, but water evaporated from them by the sun is sweet, for the salt stays behind. The sun, in its daily path over the oceans, pulls up this water at the rate of nearly 15,000,000 tons a second. The ‘ever-circling’ wind currents carry it over the land, where it condenses and falls as rain. The water thus precipitated to earth flows back into the oceans. On this cycle man is dependent for water supplies, for growth of plants for food and for weather conditions suitable for living.​—Ps. 147:18; Prov. 25:23.