Monday, April 09, 2012

9th April 2012

What a dull day. And I’m not talking about the weather, though it has been rather cold, dark and damp… in Derby anyway! No, I’ve been trying to be sensible by doing absolutely nothing all day. This last week has been far too busy and not at all good for managing Chronic Fatigue. But just sitting around all day is seriously boring and doesn’t suit me at all. At least I was successful in persuading my son to tackle a fairly strenuous cleaning job that I would have struggled with, especially today. So that was good. And I have had my Kindle to keep me nicely occupied as well.

Yes, the world of e-books has opened up a whole new enthusiasm for reading. Many years ago I had a sizable collection of books, mostly sci-fi, but there came a day when I decided to get rid of them all. There were very few I’d re-read and they occupied too much space. I now have over 70 books stored on a device the size of a very thin paperback. Currently I’m reading a couple of books a week and after extensive exploration of different genres I’m back in sci-fi world. So today I’ve been wandering around the galaxy exploring a very different and distant future, involving bizarre creations such as gene manipulation of cats transforming them into talking creatures of high intelligence. And artificial flat disc worlds supporting populations in the billions. All quite light hearted nonsense to help me relax.

I wonder what the future actually holds. There’ll be a day when those who belong to Christ will step into an eternal life with him. There’ll be plenty of time to explore, plenty of time to create and plenty to enjoy I reckon, but one things for sure… the creative power of God will always surpass the greatest work of fiction. The beauty of our planet is staggering, from the amazing life found in the deepest ocean to microscopic life forms revealed through the microscope we see the hand of God at work in new ways day by day, year by year. On a clear night, a short journey away from city lights opens up a window into the universe that is quite awe inspiring. From botany, biology and zoology to geology, physics and chemistry we have barely scratched the surface of understanding about planet earth let alone the infinite world of astronomy. And I’ve observed one interesting evidence of the existence of God and his work… with only a very few debatable or explainable exceptions, everything we see is quite beautiful. The whole of nature, indeed the whole of the universe is quite magnificent! Even the ugly evil to be found at times in mankind, should always be balanced with the intrinsic goodness and yes, beauty, to be clearly seen in almost everyone… given the right surroundings of course! Yes, despite the greatest challenge at birth and subsequent exposure to whatever life brings along, we’re all made in the image of God. It’s all explained right at the beginning of the Bible anyway. It’s called the fall of man, which of course affects everything as we were given ‘stewardship’ of our world by the Lord. It’s quite a challenge, messing up the perfect beauty of God’s creation but we’re giving it our best shot it seems. One day he’ll put us and it to rights though.

So then, with careful inspection of my Deal photo you’ll observe a small part of an enormous offshore wind farm. It’s barely noticeable, even on a clear day, and without a zoom lens it's easy to ignore. Some might say that is an ugly intrusion into a beautiful seascape. I’m not that sure... given the seemingly permanent cloud cover over nearby power station cooling towers, I know which I prefer.

Ecclesiastes 3:11 Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end.’ (NLT)

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