Daily

I guess everybody's had those "days," when you get to the end and you're simply exhausted. Feels like there was more to do than there was time to do it. It can get discouraging and disheartening. What a comfort it is to know that, even on days like that, God is holding us. He holds us every day! That's quite a promise.

We need to be borne on a daily basis, and we need to be borne by someone bigger than us. Blessed be the Lord, who fills that role for us! He bears us when we could never bear ourselves. He saves us when we could never have saved ourselves. He is patient with us when we become impatient with ourselves. He is a good God. We need Him every day!

(The photograph is from our recent vacation to Watoga, WV. More to follow, I'm sure.)

The Moon

"When I look at Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have set in place, what is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You care for him?" (Psalm 8:3-4) 

The moon is a beautiful thing.

The moon shot directly above was taken two nights ago when Jupiter and the moon came closer together than they've been since 1963. Believe it or not, the bluish-green blur below is Jupiter! (Sorry I couldn't do better on photo quality!)

Here they are both together, the little white speck being Jupiter:

As previously stated, the moon and other creations in our solar system and galaxy are beautiful indeed! Whether it's the moon, a planet, the sun, or the stars, the majesty of the universe boggles our minds.

Having seen such glory, we can more fully appreciate David's feelings when he penned the words of Psalm 8:3-4 (or the whole psalm, for that matter!). You look up at that majestic moon, or that distant planet, or those twinkling stars, and you can only wonder: "Who am I?"

There are such greater glories than us out there, things far more beautiful, powerful, and majestic than us. Why would God bother to look at us, as wretched and sinful as we are? We are weak, we are small, we are finite, limited in so many ways. Why is God mindful of us?

The psalm makes it clear that there is one reason: it is for His own glory and the sake of His great majesty. Only a God of infinite glory could take finite creatures like humans and give them absolute dominion over all of creation. Yes, we're lower than the heavenly beings (Ps. 8:5), but God has set us over everything (Ps. 8:5-8)! And so I ask you, whose glory is greatest? Is it not the God who gave feeble mankind dominion over all of creation?

Our God is an awesome God. We humans may be feeble compared to the moon, planets, sun, and stars, but our powerful, mighty God has given us dominion over it all. How majestic He is!

Thirsty?

Be Exalted

Am I Nuts?

"When I am afraid, I put my trust in You. In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I shall not be afraid. What can flesh do to me?" (Ps. 56:3-4)

Sometimes, trusting God can feel more dangerous than safe. It often looks like the craziest way to go. How can it possibly be safer to trust someone else to know what's best for us? It's nuts!

Or is it?

This I know, that God is for me. In God, whose word I praise, in the LORD, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I shall not be afraid. What can man do to me?" (Ps. 56:9-11)

Maybe trusting God isn't so nuts. He's on our side, and He is omniscient and omnipotent. And if He knows everything and can do anything, then we are best off trusting Him with our lives. He knows what is best for us far better than we do, so if we trust Him, we have nothing to worry about. The only time we are truly nuts is when we fail to trust Him.

Thirsty

"O God, You are my God; earnestly I seek You; my soul thirsts for You; my flesh faints for You, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water" (Ps. 63:1).

It has been very dry lately. There hasn't been any good, soaking rain in a long time. And of course, when that happens, things begin to die. So we're having a premature fall.

What a solemn reminder of creation's dependence upon its Creator. All God must do is withhold His hand from giving rain, and life begins to end. Let us never start to think that we can make it without God. It is only by His daily grace that we endure. Without Him we wither. Yet let us also not forget that He is good, and that He has made provision for our thirst:

"Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life" (John 4:13-14).

 There is a source. Let us drink from it always!

Pandorus Sphynx Moth

Once again I stand amazed at the wonder that God performs in transforming an ugly worm into a unique and colorful creature. May He work such a transformation in me!