The Glorious Needle in the Unfathomable Haystack

Thursday, September 29, 2022

O Lord, our Lord, your majestic name fills the earth!  Your glory is higher than the heavens.  You have taught children and infants to tell of your strength,
silencing your enemies and all who oppose you.  When I look at the night sky and see the work of your fingers—the moon and the stars you set in place—what are mere mortals that you should think about them, human beings that you should care for them?  Yet you made them only a little lower than God and crowned them with glory and honor.  You gave them charge of everything you made, putting all things under their authority—the flocks and the herds and all the wild animals, the birds in the sky, the fish in the sea, and everything that swims the ocean currents.  O Lord, our Lord, your majestic name fills the earth!  Psalm 8:1-9

The Psalmist (in a big stage whisper) wonders aloud about how God could possibly be concerned about us humans.  Calvin, the precocious (some would say “obnoxious”) kid proclaims he’s SIGNIFICANT, just before allowing he’s quite small, compared to the universe.

Calvin and Hobbes is one of my many favorite cartoon strips.  That may be due to the author’s[1] theological bent which always catches my eye, and most often my admiration. 

I admire (and often envy) the way the creator of this ‘toon can present a complex Biblical theme on the meaning of life, with just four-panels and a precocious, self-absorbed six-year-old.  That may be because the creator, Bill Watterson, modeled the main characters, the boy, Calvin, and his stuffed tiger, Hobbes, after a preacher and a moral, wondering cynic.  You gotta love it!

In the first and third panel, Calvin looks into the sky’s East, then West, as if he’s searching the whole of the heavens.  In the second panel he announces with certainty his significant place (as only a six-year-old can proclaim from his sandbox).  In the fourth, and final panel, Calvin concludes, and allows that he might be just a piece, a speck of dust in the big pile of the puzzle, and not the magnificent centerpiece his first statement demanded.

This is the ongoing human struggle for identity and perspective on the significance and purpose of life.  I suppose if I had Bill Watterson’s ability to get to the nub in so short a presentation (it only takes eight seconds to read), I guess my sermons would be a lot shorter, and my congregation would always beat the Baptist brethren to the local restaurants on Sunday.

For You Today

There will never be a test to pass on Sunday’s sermon.  So, here’s a delicious short-thought to ponder:  When the sermon is spoken this Sunday, whether you take notes, or not, take note of just one salient, provoking, life issue your pastor presents, and contemplate, think-deeply, and measure it against your life.  Take it home and see what God says to you in prayer that day, or the rest of the week.  And then find some way to put into action whatever God brings into your life that next week.  You may not have a stuffed tiger that will talk back to you like Calvin’s Hobbes, but the Holy Spirit will lead those who seriously seek the Lord.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

Go to VIDEO (read by author)

There are about 2,000 devotional posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road Devotions library.  To dig deeper on today’s topic, explore some of these: 

We Mortals and How to Cure a Cosmic Headache  and When a Child Speaks

[1] Images:  via Pixabay.com   Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©  

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[1] ©Bill Watterson named the characters Calvin (for John Calvin, 16^th century theologian) and Hobbes (for 17^th century philosopher Thomas Hobbes).  For much more background information see Wikipedia here.

When the Lord God Made the Earth and the Heavens

Thursday, July 14, 2022

When the Lord God made the earth and the heavens,  Genesis 2:4

In Biblical literature the order of words tells us something the Author intended.  In this case, the importance of order begins with God, flows to earth, and mentions the heavens.  Humankind have always been interested in our beginnngs:  where, when, how, and (if there is a) Who to our origin, as well as the corollary blockbuster which drives the whole issue of meaning – WHY are we here.  Recently NASA announced their opinion that we’ve taken the next step in all those answers:

This image provided by NASA on Tuesday, July 12, 2022, shows Stephan's Quintet, a visual grouping of five galaxies captured by the Webb Telescope's Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI).  Webb’s use of the infrared light spectrum allows the telescope to see through the cosmic dust and see faraway light from the corners of the universe, scientists said.  ‘We’ve really changed the understanding of our universe’…,[1]

It is fascinating, mindblowing stuff considering the vastness and possibilities of meaning related to the cosmos.  When you try to put our planet’s size in perspective, compared to the universe, there are 20 ½ trillion miles between Earth and Proxima Centauri (the nearest star past our sun).  At the speed of light it takes light three-and-a-half years to get there.  Compound that by millions of light years and untold millions of galaxies, and my mind is officially frozen…hard drive maxed and on life-support!  We are a pretty tiny cog in the universe’s wheel.

It is easy to figure out why the Psalmist, when looking into the vastness of the night sky we also see, asked one of those meaning questions; he wondered why the Creator of it all could look down at humanity and take such an interest in us:

O Lord, our Lord, your majestic name fills the earth!  Your glory is higher than the heavens.  You have taught children and infants to tell of your strength, silencing your enemies and all who oppose you.  When I look at the night sky and see the work of your fingers—the moon and the stars you set in place—what are mere mortals that you should think about them, human beings that you should care for them?  Yet you made them only a little lower than God and crowned them with glory and honor.  You gave them charge of everything you made, putting all things under their authority—the flocks and the herds and all the wild animals, the birds in the sky, the fish in the sea, and everything that swims the ocean currents.  O Lord, our Lord, your majestic name fills the earth!  Psalm 8:1-9

The Psalmist, King David, had never seen an infrared telescope, and didn’t have access to the Internet, but he answered all the who, what, where, and why questions in just a few sentences, and threw in God’s majesty, our meaning, and purpose for good measure.  Our purpose (and privilege) is to investigate the depths of God’s majesty in creation, both of the universe we behold, and the magnificent glory of who we are to Him and each other.  And in doing so, we, who are crowned with the glory of God, offer it all back to him in praise.

For You Today

If you’ve ever looked up to a clear, vibrant, star-filled sky and asked those questions about your own existence and meaning…you’ve got the waking hours of this day to ponder.  You may have tomorrow too, if God allows…but use this day wisely…plunge into His creative love with all you’ve got, and let Him shower you with all the meaning and purpose your heart can hold.  And before you lay your head on the pillow tonight, give Him praise for all that you experience.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

Go to VIDEO (read by author)

There are about 2,000 devotional posts on Rocky Road Devotions. 

To dig deeper into today’s topic or Scripture text:  Wondering about the Big Stuff Part 1  Part 2 and Part 3

[1] Images:  Associated Press  Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©  

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[1] In an Associated Press article:  Baby stars, dancing galaxies: NASA shows new cosmic views

Everything that Breathes

 

Wednesday, April 21, 2021

Praise the Lord!  Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heaven!  Praise him for his mighty works; praise his unequaled greatness!  Praise him with a blast of the ram’s horn; praise him with the lyre and harp!  Praise him with the tambourine and dancing; praise him with strings and flutes!  Praise him with a clash of cymbals; praise him with loud clanging cymbals.  Let everything that breathes sing praises to the Lord!  Praise the Lord!  Psalm 150:1-6

The picture of a three-ton elephant next to a two-pound egret is a perfect symbol for this last chapter of the Psalms.  Juxtaposition, seeing the contrasting difference between two or more of anything placed together, is today’s word for praise.  To paraphrase the Psalmist’s encouragement, let’s just say let everything that breathes praise the Lord, however that creature can offer praise, no matter how much they differ from one another.

The juxtaposition of different kinds of praises are represented in the Psalm-writer’s musical instruments.  Ram’s horns blasting and cymbals clanging are what they do…loud, bombastic, and overpowering to declare God’s majesty.  The contrast of strings, flutes, and harps, so gentle and lilting, are just as authentic paintings of God’s beauty and kindness.  And then, there is dancing to the beat of drums and tambourines, a frenzied release of the heart’s joy to celebrate the goodness of God’s mercy towards His created universe, and all its inhabitants.

Praise to God comes in so many differently-wrapped packages it is difficult to even have a category list, let alone a comprehensive dictionary of the ways creation offers praise.  But, maybe the juxtaposition of church and cicadas come close.  Church services lift praise in song, and many other ways.  

The lowly 17-year cicada locust eats everything in sight and blasts a chorus of night songs that could keep Rip van Winkle awake.

Our first introduction to these little beasts came many years ago when our children were preschoolers.  Our two-year-old son, Jason, was lying prostrate on the back patio, chin on the ground, facing one of the little buggers.  He had his tongue extended for the ugly little beast to crawl up.  I’ve tried, but cannot imagine what was going on in that little mind.

The eggs from which cicadas hatch were buried 17 years prior in the ground.  Somehow God awakens them all at the same time in 204 months, and they come out of the earth like…well….locusts.  They do the locust thing, eating like they’ve been stuck on a diet for decades.  The sound of their wings and hind legs rubbing together is an opus dei similar to a thousand lions roaring for dinner.  The sound is the male mating call, which is followed by more millions of cicada eggs buried in the ground. 

And in just a few short weeks they’re gone, leaving empty shells of bodies strewn all over, stuck to tree trunks, on patio floors, gutters, and every other nook or cranny you can imagine.  Their song of praise is always short, loud, unstoppable, and no mistake.  In this dance of praise to their Creator’s design they serve a purpose, pruning mature trees, aerating the soil, and, when they die, returning vital nitrogen to the soil from whence they came. 

Now, stand that image of annoying cicada bugs in your mind against a four-year-old child singing “Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so”.  And there it is, juxtaposition!  They’re so different…and so alike…offering to God the praise He placed within them. 

The next time you see a hurricane building in the tropics, or watch on tv as a volcano erupts, or the 17-year-locusts return, try to remember God’s creation doing what the Almighty hand has given them to do…praise His holy name.  And while you’re at it think of your neighbor, or that person on the other side of town, or the other side of the world, and how differently he may offer praise than you do.  And then offer the praise he put inside of you, in just the way He designed it.

For You Today

Whether you’re an elephant, an egret, or a cicada, or just somebody who happened to wake up today in God’s universe, there’s a song inside you.  Sing it loudly or softly, on-key or off, but don’t keep it to yourself.  Offer it to Him!

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!  

[1] Title Image: Wikimedia Commons  Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©

Parable Promises

[i]

Wednesday, August 2, 2017

Jesus said, “How can I describe the Kingdom of God?  What story should I use to illustrate it?  It is like a mustard seed planted in the ground.  It is the smallest of all seeds, but it becomes the largest of all garden plants; it grows long branches, and birds can make nests in its shade.”  Jesus used many similar stories and illustrations to teach the people as much as they could understand.  In fact, in his public ministry he never taught without using parables; but afterward, when he was alone with his disciples, he explained everything to them.  Mark 4:30-34^(NLT)

Even the universe was tiny at one time.  The big bang theory suggests[ii] that part of the universe we know, with all the planets, stars and other heavenly bodies, was merely the size of an atom before God said to it:  Get a move-on!  Then the explosion began and, scientists tell us, the cosmos has been expanding ever since at the rate of about 41 miles per second.  So the universe gets bigger by the length of about 700 football fields laid end to end every time you draw a breath.

Scientific string theory was not yet common knowledge when Jesus taught his disciples about the Kingdom; I’m glad…I think I can understand a mustard seed growing into a shade tree with bird’s nests…I think! 

If you noticed the (almost) throwaway line at the end of Mark’s text, you see that Jesus explained everything to the disciples at the end of the day when they were alone.  I’m glad the disciples were like me, with Jesus having to draw pictures so they’d understand.  To tell you the truth, my mind hurts when I go deeper into theories and systems.  Elizabeth and I watched a mini-series on the life of Albert Einstein this spring; even that TV show badgered my sensibilities with the complicated dialogue of physicists throwing technical terms and concepts back and forth at each other like intelligence missiles. 

So…keeping it simple (like Jesus did)…the mustard seed is also very small.  It also grows really fast, and really big – big enough for a bird to build a nest.

If the Kingdom of God is like that, we can begin to understand why, from a small gathering of Jesus-followers in an upper room there blossomed a church of 3,000+ on the Day of Pentecost, and it spread all over the East and West, until the Gospel is now being preached in every corner of the world.

That’s the promise of the parable. 

For You Today

If the soil receives a mustard seed, it will turn into a tree; a really big tree. 

If a human being embraces the Kingdom of God within the soil of his own life, think what growth can take place like an atom exploding to become a universe!

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road…have a blessed day!

Go to VIDEO

NOTES

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[i] Title Image: By Dinesh Valke from Thane, India, via Wikimedia Commons

[ii] Cosmoquest Forum