What the Heavens Declare

How many times have you sat outside and looked up at the stars or poked your head out the window of the car to stare up at the moon? You admire a sunset or (for those early birds) a sunrise. You can't very well look up at the sky and not believe that this all could not have happened by chance. It's all so perfect and beautifully put together; there must be and intelligent design behind its face. But it gets really crazy when you go farther out than your eyes can see. When you go to other galaxies and see the different make up of each, and that God has named every one of them and knows their place in the universe, you get this picture of how big God's knowledge is. When you see how big those things are and see how small earth is in accordance with the rest of the universe, you wonder what the psalmist wondered: "What is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?"

I don't know about you, but I was astonished when I saw this on Louie Giglio's "Indescribable." This is the Whirlpool Galaxy.

Pretty beautiful, huh? In reality, all those pinkish clusters are scary star incubators that are producing stars every second. The Hubble telescope decided to aim their telescope in the middle of this galaxy. This is what they saw:

I don't know about you, but that looks pretty close to a cross to me. Can you believe it? The heavens are there and they are declaring everyday that God is here, God is real, God is powerful, and He's loving. His promises are everywhere. Those stars up there aren't doing anything incredibly important except giving God all the glory. He knows all of the millions and billions of stars and galaxies by name and He knows yours too and cares about you right now. We have such a big God and He still wants to have a personal relationship with us. That's an amazing God right there.

Look up Louie Giglio's "Indescribable" if you ever get the chance. It's on youtube.com. It's not that long, but you will be blown away by what you will see and hear.

For Spring to Have Sprung

Do you think that maybe God designed nature to make us laugh at our lives sometimes? For example, the past few days have been dark and dreary, cloudy and sometimes rainy. The grass is all brown and full of dead leaves and sticks. It's supposed to rain like this for a while. But I know that at the end, the grass will start getting greener, the leaves will come out on the trees, a few flowers might pop up!

And then, it'll rain again, and there'll be thunder and maybe lightning... and it'll be dark and cloudy again for a while. But after that, the grass is even greener, the leaves even bigger, and the flower buds even more abundant.

Sort of like our lives- every once in a while God rains down on us lessons and trials, trips in the road. But eventually, it stops, and our lives are more enriched, our minds more mature, and our walk with God more fortified.

But we so quickly lose hope when the rain starts. We think that the darkness will never end, the thunder will never cease. If we just looked out the window, we'd see that the end of the Lord is very merciful. We buckle under the weight of the raindrops, we forget that the taller we stand, the fuller we'll grow.

Did you know that after every rain, there is a rainbow? You don't see it every time because the sun has to be at a certain angle, and you have to be at a certain distance for the sun's rays to reflect off of the water molecules in the air.

Yet another one of God's object lessons! After every trial, temptation, and lesson God gives to us, His promises are always sure. His rainbow is always there. Even though we can't see it, it's proven to stand.

It amazes me how thoughtful and detailed God has been in His creation. Such a wonderful thing to be able to see God's work of art, and see our lives. It's like watching an artist paint a picture based on a feeling that you have-- only better.