I’m sitting out on our patio watching the sunset and I remembered when our grandson was here, we looked at photos of the galaxies that the Hubble spacecraft had taken. I told Raffi that his great-grandfather (Larry’s dad) had helped to build the Hubble spacecraft, but as an almost 5-year-old, Raffi didn’t comprehend what I was saying. Some day he will.
I looked up at the sunset from my typing and saw the most brilliant red sunset with streaks of red highlighting rounded blobs of clouds. I ran for my camera but the batteries were dead. I wanted to enjoy the sunset more than finding the batteries, so I have pasted a photo of one of God’s galaxies instead.
If you’ve never viewed the photos that the Hubble spacecraft has taken, see the link below. It’s so amazing. As I thought of those photos I’d seen with Raffi, I had this intense sense that it’s as if God were just having lots of fun when He created all those galaxies and nebulae. (You gotta see those!)
The one above is named Spiral Galaxy M100 and looks like Jesus twirled His finger in paint-topped water and made a swirl. What fun–like a child finger painting. Amazing! Can’t you just feel His delight in the way His art project turned out? As Father God applauded, maybe the Holy Spirit exclaimed, “Oh, I really like that one!”(Forgive me if I’m being irreverent; that’s not my intention.)
As light disappeared from the sky in the view from my patio, I thought of God’s questions to Job: “Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades,
Or loose the cords of Orion?
“Can you lead forth a constellation in its season,
And guide the Bear with her satellites?
“Do you know the ordinances of the heavens,
Or fix their rule over the earth?” (Job 38:31-33)
“Can you lead forth a constellation in its season,
And guide the Bear with her satellites?
“Do you know the ordinances of the heavens,
Or fix their rule over the earth?” (Job 38:31-33)
Referring to the verses 25-41 of Chapter 38 which include the above verses, Matthew Henry comments, “Hitherto God had put questions to Job to show him his ignorance; now God shows his weakness. As it is but little that he knows, he ought not to arraign [find fault with] the Divine counsels; it is but little he can do, therefore he ought not to oppose the ways of Providence.”
As I watched that magnificent sky-filled art work of God from my patio, I would have liked to make it stay there for an hour or at least slow down its disappearance. But I had no power to do that. That’s God’s point. He controls the skies because He created them. Why do I oppose the ways of such a magnificent God who delighted in creating Spiral Galaxy M100 even though no human would enjoy His artwork for thousands of years? And red-edged blobs of clouds would only fascinate Southern Californians for eight minutes. Oh, God is also a generous and extravagant God.
Take a minute to enjoy Spiral Galaxy M100 and then praise God for the powerful and creative Almighty God that He is who not only has His fingers twirling in galaxies but shows His fingerprints in the circumstances of your life. He’s applauding His artwork: you!
REMINDER: If you wanted to put your name in the drawing to win a copy of Ginny Yttrup’s new novel, Lost and Found, today is the last day to write a comment and let me know.