Full Idea
The laws of nature are not simple descriptions of what can be seen to happen. They are descriptions of abstractions and idealisations from a somewhat messy reality.
Gist of Idea
Laws describe abstract idealisations, not the actual mess of nature
Source
Rom Harré (Laws of Nature [1993], 1)
Book Reference
Harré,Rom: 'Laws of Nature' [Duckworth 1993], p.34
A Reaction
This view seems to have increasingly gripped modern philosophers, so that the old view of God decreeing a few simple equations to run the world has faded away.