"For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways," declares the LORD. "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts". -Isaiah 55:8-9
Last night we had a super blood moon total eclipse. I was hearing all the chatter about it from friends at school and on facebook. I was so excited anticipating this great event, but I didn't understand what all of it meant, so during little breaks from studying for my first pediatric nursing exam, I was reading an article about it. I have always loved astronomy, and I love those rare or "once in a lifetime events," (hence why I biked 25 miles with my friends this weekend in attempts to see the Pope in our city). Anyway, I found out that this astronomical event where three separate lunar events converge hasn't happened since 1982 (only happening 5 times since 1900), and won't happen again until 2033. As I said, I have always loved astronomy; when I was just a little tiny one and my parents would let us stay up late and stare gaze, looking for shooting stars at the lake or on the roof deck outside my parents' room.
But last night, every time I went outside to see the moon, thick gray clouds were covering as far as my eye could see in every direction. My friends a couple hours north at home in Bear Creek were having better success, but my friends and I around here got nothing. I couldn't believe that this rare event, this beautiful alignment of the sun, moon, and earth, was being completely covered by clouds! A bunch of misty clouds were entirely blocking my view of the powerful sun shining on the moon. When I think of what the sun is made of and what clouds are made of, I think it is amazing that clouds have the power to completely separate us from seeing the sun.
As I continued to study pediatric nursing and checking the sky every once in a while, I was thinking about how I sometimes let the clouds in life completely blind me from seeing the goodness of God. I forget that the clouds might not be beautiful to me, but what would earth be without the clouds? Bone dry and dead. We need the rain and the shade to keep the earth and us all alive.
God is the creator and orchestrator of our lives. I have to trust daily that He knows best and that His promises are true, even when I don't see it. When the clouds are covering the sun and the moon and I wonder if they are there, I have to remember what I know to be true. That I have seen them, experienced them, and I know they are there. When I wondering if God cares, I have to remember that I have seen Him, experienced Him, and instead of shaking my fists and complaining about the clouds and that I have to study instead of watching the blood moon, I can trust that His ways are perfect, and in the end of the story of my life on earth that God is writing, if I have been been faithful to rejoice and trust Him in every season, I will be able to see all the ways He used my life for His glory, which is the point anyway.
I may not have been able to see the blood moon last night and won't get to for at least 20 years, but God used it to reminded me of His faithfulness whether the sun is shining or the clouds are surrounding me and covering all the light. It is all needed and all part of the story.
Louie Giglio has a sermon about astronomy and I think about it often. About how God's greatness is in fact far beyond my comprehension and I remember how small I am in the grand scheme of life, yet loved infinitely, beyond measure, individually. Each of us are known and created uniquely by Him (this sermon is definitely worth a watch; I've been listening to this one since I was 16 and it never gets old :)).
Last night we had a super blood moon total eclipse. I was hearing all the chatter about it from friends at school and on facebook. I was so excited anticipating this great event, but I didn't understand what all of it meant, so during little breaks from studying for my first pediatric nursing exam, I was reading an article about it. I have always loved astronomy, and I love those rare or "once in a lifetime events," (hence why I biked 25 miles with my friends this weekend in attempts to see the Pope in our city). Anyway, I found out that this astronomical event where three separate lunar events converge hasn't happened since 1982 (only happening 5 times since 1900), and won't happen again until 2033. As I said, I have always loved astronomy; when I was just a little tiny one and my parents would let us stay up late and stare gaze, looking for shooting stars at the lake or on the roof deck outside my parents' room.
But last night, every time I went outside to see the moon, thick gray clouds were covering as far as my eye could see in every direction. My friends a couple hours north at home in Bear Creek were having better success, but my friends and I around here got nothing. I couldn't believe that this rare event, this beautiful alignment of the sun, moon, and earth, was being completely covered by clouds! A bunch of misty clouds were entirely blocking my view of the powerful sun shining on the moon. When I think of what the sun is made of and what clouds are made of, I think it is amazing that clouds have the power to completely separate us from seeing the sun.
As I continued to study pediatric nursing and checking the sky every once in a while, I was thinking about how I sometimes let the clouds in life completely blind me from seeing the goodness of God. I forget that the clouds might not be beautiful to me, but what would earth be without the clouds? Bone dry and dead. We need the rain and the shade to keep the earth and us all alive.
God is the creator and orchestrator of our lives. I have to trust daily that He knows best and that His promises are true, even when I don't see it. When the clouds are covering the sun and the moon and I wonder if they are there, I have to remember what I know to be true. That I have seen them, experienced them, and I know they are there. When I wondering if God cares, I have to remember that I have seen Him, experienced Him, and instead of shaking my fists and complaining about the clouds and that I have to study instead of watching the blood moon, I can trust that His ways are perfect, and in the end of the story of my life on earth that God is writing, if I have been been faithful to rejoice and trust Him in every season, I will be able to see all the ways He used my life for His glory, which is the point anyway.
I may not have been able to see the blood moon last night and won't get to for at least 20 years, but God used it to reminded me of His faithfulness whether the sun is shining or the clouds are surrounding me and covering all the light. It is all needed and all part of the story.
Louie Giglio has a sermon about astronomy and I think about it often. About how God's greatness is in fact far beyond my comprehension and I remember how small I am in the grand scheme of life, yet loved infinitely, beyond measure, individually. Each of us are known and created uniquely by Him (this sermon is definitely worth a watch; I've been listening to this one since I was 16 and it never gets old :)).
