a few awesome things

■#523  - Learning a new word and using it in conversation

■#526  -When dreams come true
■#538  - Laughing so hard you start crying
■#543  - That separate compartment in your stomach for dessert
■#567  - The light at the end of the tunnel
■#643  - The sound of steaks hitting a hot grill
■#777  - Reading the nutritional label and eating it anyway
■#895  - Getting something with actual handwriting on it in the mail
■#902  - Roasting the perfect marshmallow
■#919  - Hitting a bunch of green lights in a row

(from 1000awesomethings.com)

space mountain picture taken by hubble telescope

incredible close-up of a solar flare

"When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?"  Psalm 8

new creation

On Easter, we Christians celebrated the bursting forth of the new creation in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The restoration of creation has begun with him and with us. Consider the story. God had first created the earth and its creatures. And then he created us. But we ruined his creation. So God begins the restoration of creation at the point where it came unraveled. He first restores us in Christ. And then he restores his creation.

In the meantime, we live in the midst of a groaning creation (Romans 8). On the one hand, the groaning of the creation that has been subjected to corruption calls us to repentance. For it is on account of us that the earth suffers beneath the curse and ongoing human destructiveness. On the other hand, the groaning of creation in anticipation of its renewal calls us to embrace the goodness of creation and the goodness of our creatureliness.

As new creatures raised with Christ, we have been set free from the need to possess and control the earth for our self-aggrandizement. Instead, we’ve been set free to recover our place within creation as those whom God created to live in a unique relationship with him and with our fellow creatures. As the ruin of creation began with us, so the renewal of creation begins with us.

(from "together with all creatures" by charles arand)

iceland volcano

three lange boys

"God of My Fathers"

God of my fathers, You'll be there for me,

even as You were for them.

Why is is harder for me to believe?

Please give me the faith of those men.

Don't keep Your Spirit far from me,

Keep me steadfast in Your Word.

Lead me not into temptation,

Hold me close to Your Word.

Where do I go, and how do I serve You,

and who do You want me to be?

Knowing You and Whose I am,

somehow allows me to see.

Praise to the Father, who with the Son,

and Spirit all three in one.

Who leadeth me until that day,

when all is said and done.

God of my fathers, You'll be there for me,

even as You were for them.

Why is harder for me to believe?

Please give me the faith of those men.