Here’s my hypothesis:

The Periodic Table of the Elements is like a foosball table.

What do you think?

Here’s another:

The Periodic Table of the Elements is like the family dinner table.

Still scratching your head? Last one:

The Periodic Table of the Elements is like a glass-topped professional table in a business conference room.

It all comes down to the word like, doesn’t it? What do I mean by the word like?

A table’s main function is to gather. Friends gather around a foosball table to play a fun game. Families gather around the dinner table to share a meal, stories, laughter, and tears. Co-workers gather around a conference room table to make decisions and seal important deals with handshakes.

The common denominator here is that these tables gather people.

The Periodic Table seems to act a bit differently. It too brings things together, but it gathers data — facts, figures, and information. It compiles all these together into an easier to read and use layout.

BUT

I think the Periodic Table can gather people too. Just like those other tables, friends, families, and co-workers can gather around it to learn, share, and make decisions.

Don’t believe me?

I’m dedicating this blog to proving it, but for now let’s start here.

Take a good long look at the Periodic Table. Not just a quick glance, but really look at it.

It’s a table made up of elements. Do you see them all?

An element is a substance that contains only one type of atom and can’t be broken down into a simpler substance by any kind of chemical reaction.

There are 118 elements in this table.

That’s 118 unique elements. Most are found naturally in nature. Some were made synthetically in a lab. But no two elements are the same. Each one is different.

And these elements can combine with one another to form compounds and other substances. (Hydrogen and Oxygen can combine to make water, or they can make hydrogen peroxide).

There are literally millions of combinations!

And if that doesn’t boggle the mind, think of this.

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

Genesis 1:1

God knows and designed each and every one of those elements, and he knows every combination that they can make.

AND

He knows you and me and every other person reading this (Those of us gathered around this funky table)

The Creator of the Universe knows you by name.

That is perhaps the most mind-boggling wonderful thought of them all.