When I Look At the Heavens

Today is Wednesday, February 6, 2019.

Day 22,245

SEVEN DAYS until Spring Training starts! One week until baseball!!!

“I loathe the expression ‘What makes him tick.’ It is the American mind, looking for simple and singular solution, that uses the foolish expression. A person not only ticks, he also chimes and strikes the hour, falls and breaks and has to be put together again, and sometimes stops like an electric clock in a thunderstorm.”
James Thurber, U.S. author, cartoonist, humorist, and satirist, 1894-1961
The Quotations Page

The word of the day is ratiocination. It means, “the process of exact thinking, reasoning.” (Merriam-Webster)

Once again, we stayed home last night, mostly so I could practice some more. I think it’s getting better, but I’m still struggling with moments of inaccuracy. I don’t know how else to describe it. I don’t have the songs down to where they simply flow naturally, yet, and that’s my goal. Oh, and, for the record, I’m not using any music. Everything is being played “by ear.” I did borrow from a few chord charts online when I couldn’t figure out an exact chord, but the rest is, as they say, on the fly.

TODAY’S DEVOTIONAL AND PRAYERS
All Scriptures are from the ESV unless otherwise noted

Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving.
Colossians 4:2

Today I am grateful:
1. For technology that allows me to order sandwiches and salads from Subway from my phone and have them ready to pick up when I get to the store.
2. That I have the privilege of lifting others up to the Lord in prayer.
3. That I have the faith to believe that He can answer those prayers.
4. For the glory of creation that displays the love of God.
5. That His love is never-ending.

Blessed are you, O Lord, the God of our fathers,
creator of the changes of day and night,
giving rest to the weary,
renewing the strength of those who are spent,
bestowing upon us occasions of song in the evening.
As you have protected us in the day that is past,
so be with us in the coming night;
keep us from every sin, every evil, and every fear;
for you are our light and salvation,
and the strength of our life.
To you be glory for endless ages. Amen.

(The Book of Common Prayer)

(From Faith That Matters)

Today’s reading is “Creation is Proof of God’s Love,” by James Bryan Smith.

Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

“All around us are hints and evidences of God’s desire for us to be full of joy.” That is interesting if you consider how “joy-less” we typically are, say, for example, during that morning drive to work. But even in the midst of the steel and concrete of the road systems that lead us where we are going, there is joy to be found, if we but look at it with the correct eyes.

We can find joy in creation itself, says Smith. “We live in a world that is magnificent and beyond our understanding.” Smith confesses that, at one point in his life, he did not see it this way, but rather as “a hunk of matter and molecules spinning endlessly in a pattern of evolution.” but he was inspired by the work of G.K. Chesterton who pointed out that “nature is not a system of necessity. Yes, the sun will probably come up tomorrow, but it need not. Perhaps each day God says to the sun, ‘Arise! Go forth!'”

I believe (and have experienced this) that if we look at creation with our eyes truly open, we will see the goodness of God and know how much He loves us. Remember, David, himself, was in awe of God’s care for man when he looked at the stars (Psalm 8).

Father, thank You for the beauty of creation, that demonstrates Your great love and care for us. May we look with our eyes open, today, as we do whatever it is that we do, driving to work, going to the stores, whatever. May we see Your great love for us wherever we look.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!

When I look at 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, and the son of man that you care for him?
Psalm 8:3-4

Soli Deo Gloria!