If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there Your hand shall lead me, and Your right hand shall hold me. If I say, "Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night," even the darkness is not dark to You; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with You. (Verses 9-12)
You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father Who is in heaven. Jesus, Matthew 5
There are creatures in the depths of the ocean that we only suppose to be in existence. Only recently have scientists plumbed the ocean depths to discover giant squid in their natural habitat. But, there is an even larger breed, the colossal squid, that has only recently been discovered because one washed up onto shore in 2007 in New Zealand. It weighed a thousand pounds. Giant squid are a long as whales and are prey for them. However, sometimes squid win as proven by the sucker and bite marks on the body of the dead whale. But the oceans are so deep, there hasn't been an opportunity to actually see the wars going on between these enormous creatures.
There is a volcano named Titanic that whose base is 12,000 feet below the surface of the North Atlantic. A more newly discovered volcano under the sea is called Kick'em Jenny. The conditions surrounding it are too dangerous for humans, so the efforts to understand its power were photographed by a roving vehicle. What the scientists discovered while probing the depths around the volcano is that there is life there...a place on the planet where it was supposed that life didn't exist.
Our galaxy is unfathomably large. Our sun, the nearest star to Earth, is 93 million miles away. It's a million times larger than our planet. These are just one small part of the Milky Way. It's so large that even traveling at the speed of light, it would take 100,000 years to travel across it. Beyond our galaxy is a vast expanse of other galaxies, probably billions of them! We don't even know how big the universe is. The most distant galaxy known to date is Abell2744Y1, and it was formed 13.2 billion years ago. Mind blowing even comprehending fully the immensity of the heavens into which we look each night. Even more awe inspiring is the fact that it's all expanding, as from an earlier explosion. So there are reaches of the heaven into which the universe can expand further!
All of this is visible to the naked eye of our God. The creatures we aren't even aware of lurking and living at the bottom of a volcano rumbling deep beneath the ocean. Another entire world existing in darkness. Were I to go there, my God would not lose me. It's not too dark in the waters of the seas for our God to be blind to our existence. And we don't have to be floating in oblivion 12,000 feet deep. We can be carried along in darkness right here on solid ground, too. Unable to see our way. Plunged into sudden sickness, financial reversals, abandonment or even death. Laid low with little light for the clarity of our circumstances. God isn't looking at us through His holy sunglasses, trying to find us in our pain. Our God is there with us. We can't be in a place where He doesn't bring the light. Just as He created and sustains the depths we cannot fathom, God blew up a few molecules of life into the universe and made a sparkling array of brilliance that ever reaches outward toward what seems to be an infinite amount of space. No matter how far it expands, God can see the end of it. And the beginning. All at the same time. So if I fly on the wings of the morning to experience life on the lam, I can't possibly get away from my God. God's x-ray vision pierces the most profound darkness. Makes it look like daytime. He certainly gets what seems most dark to us.
"I am the Light of the World," Jesus said. "Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the Light of life." Heaven is lit with His effulgent light (Revelation 22:5). There is no blackness or confusion in His presence. If darkness is light to Jesus, then we can be assured of His clarity and purpose when we walk in the glow of that Light. Following Jesus means that instead of our footfall in His shadow, our paths are illuminated by the sheen from His being. As Christians, we are filled with the Spirit, alit from within. More and more as we know our God. It's dark out there in our world right now. Ebony clouds shrouding entire countries with tyranny and hopelessness. We are called to be light. To shine in the night that creeps across our planet. We are a reflection of the glory emanating from the true Light as we trust the fact that there isn't a place too dark or too far for His hand to reach us.
You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father Who is in heaven. Jesus, Matthew 5
There are creatures in the depths of the ocean that we only suppose to be in existence. Only recently have scientists plumbed the ocean depths to discover giant squid in their natural habitat. But, there is an even larger breed, the colossal squid, that has only recently been discovered because one washed up onto shore in 2007 in New Zealand. It weighed a thousand pounds. Giant squid are a long as whales and are prey for them. However, sometimes squid win as proven by the sucker and bite marks on the body of the dead whale. But the oceans are so deep, there hasn't been an opportunity to actually see the wars going on between these enormous creatures.
There is a volcano named Titanic that whose base is 12,000 feet below the surface of the North Atlantic. A more newly discovered volcano under the sea is called Kick'em Jenny. The conditions surrounding it are too dangerous for humans, so the efforts to understand its power were photographed by a roving vehicle. What the scientists discovered while probing the depths around the volcano is that there is life there...a place on the planet where it was supposed that life didn't exist.
Our galaxy is unfathomably large. Our sun, the nearest star to Earth, is 93 million miles away. It's a million times larger than our planet. These are just one small part of the Milky Way. It's so large that even traveling at the speed of light, it would take 100,000 years to travel across it. Beyond our galaxy is a vast expanse of other galaxies, probably billions of them! We don't even know how big the universe is. The most distant galaxy known to date is Abell2744Y1, and it was formed 13.2 billion years ago. Mind blowing even comprehending fully the immensity of the heavens into which we look each night. Even more awe inspiring is the fact that it's all expanding, as from an earlier explosion. So there are reaches of the heaven into which the universe can expand further!
All of this is visible to the naked eye of our God. The creatures we aren't even aware of lurking and living at the bottom of a volcano rumbling deep beneath the ocean. Another entire world existing in darkness. Were I to go there, my God would not lose me. It's not too dark in the waters of the seas for our God to be blind to our existence. And we don't have to be floating in oblivion 12,000 feet deep. We can be carried along in darkness right here on solid ground, too. Unable to see our way. Plunged into sudden sickness, financial reversals, abandonment or even death. Laid low with little light for the clarity of our circumstances. God isn't looking at us through His holy sunglasses, trying to find us in our pain. Our God is there with us. We can't be in a place where He doesn't bring the light. Just as He created and sustains the depths we cannot fathom, God blew up a few molecules of life into the universe and made a sparkling array of brilliance that ever reaches outward toward what seems to be an infinite amount of space. No matter how far it expands, God can see the end of it. And the beginning. All at the same time. So if I fly on the wings of the morning to experience life on the lam, I can't possibly get away from my God. God's x-ray vision pierces the most profound darkness. Makes it look like daytime. He certainly gets what seems most dark to us.
"I am the Light of the World," Jesus said. "Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the Light of life." Heaven is lit with His effulgent light (Revelation 22:5). There is no blackness or confusion in His presence. If darkness is light to Jesus, then we can be assured of His clarity and purpose when we walk in the glow of that Light. Following Jesus means that instead of our footfall in His shadow, our paths are illuminated by the sheen from His being. As Christians, we are filled with the Spirit, alit from within. More and more as we know our God. It's dark out there in our world right now. Ebony clouds shrouding entire countries with tyranny and hopelessness. We are called to be light. To shine in the night that creeps across our planet. We are a reflection of the glory emanating from the true Light as we trust the fact that there isn't a place too dark or too far for His hand to reach us.
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