A Glimpse of God

A Glimpse of God

I wanted to share the picture I used in this blog.  I found it last week as a story in yahoo and was completely amazed by the photograph.  At the end I have included a write up on it. The photo includes the milky way galaxy, the northern lights and a meteor.  At this time of year where we live we can see the northern lights and they are truly amazing to look at. I googled a few websites trying to see how many stars were in the Milky Way Galaxy and got several different answers of course,  but on average there were 500 billion or a thousand million or let’s just say there were too many to count.  A few days before I found the picture I was reading Genesis 1:

 ¹⁴ Then God said, “Let lights appear in the sky to separate the day from the night. Let them mark off the seasons, days, and years. ¹⁵ Let these lights in the sky shine down on the earth.” And that is what happened. ¹⁶ God made two great lights—the larger one to govern the day, and the smaller one to govern the night. He also made the stars. ¹⁷ God set these lights in the sky to light the earth, ¹⁸ to govern the day and night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. ¹⁹ And evening passed and morning came, marking the fourth day.

Genesis 1:1-3, 14-19.

God is an immeasurable God who not only made the heavens and the earth and a kajillion stars but He also made me and made you.  You and I are one of billions of people on the planet, yet He knows you and cares about you and loves you.

Psalm 139 tells us how well he knows us.

¹³ You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb. ¹⁴ Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it. ¹⁵ You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb.
 ¹⁶ You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book.
   Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.  ¹⁷ How precious are your thoughts about me,^[a] O God. They cannot be numbered! ¹⁸ I can’t even count them; they outnumber the grains of sand! And when I wake up, you are still with me! Psalm 139: 13-20

So whatever you face today He knows you, He knows what you face and if he can make the universe He can help you through the day you are facing, no matter what your day may hold. I pray that you would be filled with peace and strength as you go thru your day today.

Blessings,

Shelley

An Amateur photographer, Tommy Eliassen, composed the image in Ifjord, Finnmark, Norway. Eliassen made the photo on Sept. 25 using a Nikon D700 with a wide angle lens.  You can see the milky way,  the northern lights and a meteor as well. 

When Weariness Sets In

I am blessed with a great job and wonderful people to work with and I enjoy my work,  the one thing about this job that is different from any other I have had is I don’t have any benefits, which also means if I don’t work I don’t get paid and I don’t get paid for statutory holidays either.  The reason I am sharing this as it does relate to what I am going to share this morning.  I accepted a one year term position in June of 2010 which has since been extended to March of 2012 which I am very grateful for.  It is now almost Nov 2011 and I have yet to take two weeks off in a row for some down time.  I am getting quite weary and thought to myself one morning as I was getting ready for work “I am so tired of getting up every day and taking the train and getting to work I would just really love to stay home for a few weeks”.    So that brings us to a discussion I had with my daughter two months ago.  I went over to visit her one evening as she had a new baby and I wanted to go and hold the baby for a while,  there is something therapeutic about holding a newborn.  So as I entered her house our conversation when something like this.  Daughter – “how are you tonight”? Me – “I am tired”, even as the words escaped my mouth I wish I could have stopped them as I briefly forgot I was visiting my daughter who has a newborn (and who is more tired then a mother with a new baby, not to mention she has two other girls under the age of three).  So I then quickly tried to cover my tracks, but it did not work.  Daughter then says – “at least you get to shower and dress up and take the train to work  every day”. My brief thought on this statement was ‘see highlighted sentence above’.  I then responded with something like “yes but I have been working for more than 15 months and just want some time to stay home”,  I realized I was digging a deeper hole in this conversation by complaining  about my weariness to my daughter who has not slept thru the night for some time and sometimes doesn’t even get to shower during the day. So in closing this part of our conversation my daughter responds with “at least you get to shower and sleep at night”.  Enough said she was right, at least I get to shower and sleep at night and if I remember correctly sometimes even going to the bathroom can pose a problem when you have toddlers who don’t want you out of their sight or try to wiggle their little hands under the bathroom door while you try to take 10 seconds to use the bathroom. Well as we had a good laugh over this conversation,  she also asked me if I would like to trade for a while and no I would not like to trade for a while as much as I love my grandkids. 

As I reflected on this conversation after I got home I thought of the mother of my grandson, who is a full time single mom and full time student and I know her workload is never ending and challenging, I think of her often and how courageous she is,   I think of my mother who will do anything for anybody at any time,  I think of my son in law who works long hours for his family,  and then I think of many others including you who might be reading this today,  you may be tired and not sure how you may make it thru another day of the same workload you may have with no end in sight, you may be a student and working a full time job,  you may be a dad or single parent working long hours to support your family,  you may have rebellious teenagers and are worn out from standing your ground, your child may be in trouble with the law and you are just trying to stay afloat, you may need some change in your life and have no idea when it is going to come  and so these words came to my mind from Isaiah:

²⁸ Have you never heard? Have you never understood?  The Lord is the everlasting God,  the Creator of all the earth. He never grows weak or weary.  No one can measure the depths of his understanding. ²⁹ He gives power to the weak and strength to the powerless. ³⁰ Even youths will become weak and tired,  and young men will fall in exhaustion. ³¹ But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength.They will soar high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary.They will walk and not faint.  Isaiah 40:28-31

These words impacted me greatly that evening as I once again took my cares and worries to God in prayer and asked Him for strength to continue on this journey of one day at a time. If I think too far ahead it can be discouraging, so I think of the words my husband, who I am so thankful for, frequently says 'live for today, enjoy the day you are in' so  I am at work this morning enjoying the day I have, enjoying the view of the city as it is still dark out and the lights are pretty,  and not complaining about how I want some time off but instead being thankful for the many blessings in my life, and I do have many. 

So as you go about your day today try to live just for today and focus only on what you are currently doing, God says he will give you strength for today and He really will!

Blessings,   Shelley