Under the shelter of His Wings

"Those who live in the shelter of the Most High

will find rest in the shadow of the Almighty...

He will shield you with his wings,

He will shelter you with His feathers.

His faithful promises are your armor and protection."

Ps. 91:1,4

I do so love the way the LORD gives us pictures that can help us to understand His ways through nature and in simple sights around us. I looked at the little ducklings and imagine how safe and protected they must feel, hidden in their father's wings. His waterproof feathers keeping them safe and dry in the storms they face. The picture is not only one that speaks of safety and protection, it speaks of great intimacy and love of the parent for their offspring. It reminds me that our God is not far away or indifferent, but desires to draw us close and keep us nestled in the safety of His presence.

Jesus wept over Jerusalem, stating that He longed to gather them as a mother chicken would gather her young under her wings, but they were not willing. I was watching a nature program one day and a father bird and his newly hatched chicks were spread out along the edge of a lake. The father saw a hawk coming and made a piercing call to his young. The babies did not see the danger but immediately responded to the father bird's call. He spread his wings and the babies hid in safety until the danger had passed by. I've always remembered that scene and pray for the sensitivity to His Spirit that I will hear His voice and respond to His call to hide under His wings.

"Keep me as the apple of your eye,

Hide me under the shadow of your wings."

Ps. 17:8

A God of Wonders

"But as for me, I would seek God,

And I would place my cause before God;

Who does great and unsearchable things,

Wonders without number.

He gives rain on the earth,

And sends water on the fields.

Job 5:8-10

In his book, "Taste and See: Savoring the Supremacy of God in all of Life," John Piper drew my attention to something I had missed in my previous readings of this verse in Job. Eliphaz, the writer of this passage, lifts up God, describing Him as one who does great and unsearchable things..."wonders without number." Do you consider it odd that his first example is something that we all not only all experience often, but also frequently complain about? ... rain? Did you ever think of rain as a great and unsearchable wonder? I try to be grateful for the rain, having lived through times of drought, and come to realize it as a gift of God, but I never thought of rain as "a wonder." John Piper shared some facts about rain that have totally changed my understanding of this "wonder" of the LORD's creation. For Job and his friends to have experienced this wonder, water would have to be carried in the sky from the Mediterranean Sea several hundred miles away and then poured out on fields from the sky. How does this happen? It would not just be for the uneducated mind to wonder at this phenomena. The more one knows about the process, the more amazing it truly is! John Piper says, "...if one inch of rain falls on one square mile of farmland during the night, that would be 2,323,200 cubic feet of water, which is 17,377,536 gallons, which is 144,735,360 pounds of water." That is just the amount of water on one square mile!! I learned about evaporation and condensation in school, but I never really think about how incredible this process truly is. How does it work? John Piper described the process, "water starts becoming water again by gathering around little dust particles between .00001 and .0001 centimeters wide...the salt is taken out. So the sky picks up millions of pounds of water from the sea, takes out the salt, carries the water for three hundred miles, and then dumps it (now turned into water) on the farm. If it just dumped millions of pounds of water on the farm, the wheat would be crushed. So the sky dribbles the millions of pounds of water down in little drops. And they have to be big enough to fall for one mile or so from the sky without evaporating, and small enough to keep from crushing the wheat stalks." It does this through coalescence, which means that "specks of water start bumping into each other and join up and get bigger, and when they are big enough, they fall." It really is one of God's wonders, isn't it? Our God truly does all things well!!

Longing for Spring

The first snow of the season is falling tonight. Already the world is transformed from shades of brown and red, to that of white and silver. I find my heart already sighing, longing for the first signs of spring! Those of us who live in the Midwest complain and whine about the cold, snow and ice, longing for this season to be over. We herald the return of the robins and the firt signs of spring. Yet as passionately as we long for spring, how much more should we long for the return of our King. In asmuch as the earth lies under the curse of winter, so this world lies under the curse of separation for our Lord Jesus. Like Narnia, it is always winter, never spring! The early Church prayed frequently: Maranatha! LORD!! Maranatha!! This prayer proclaimed the longing of their hearts, "Lord, come quickly!" May the Church be sick with love for her LORD and not rest content until we are united with Him!! Maranatha!!

Longing for Morning

"My soul waits for the LORD, more than those who watch for the morning!" Ps. 130:6

Andrew Murray said, "When there is a shipwreck at midnight, with what longing the sailors look for the morning! How often the sigh goes up, "When will the day break?" Similarly, the Christian must wait on God and rest patiently until His light shines upon him."

Andrew Murray calls his readers to begin each day with prayers, especially asking the LORD to make His face to shine upon His servant (Ps. 31:16, Ps. 80:3). He says, "Do not rest until you know the light of His countenance and His blessing is resting upon you."

And Iron Entered His Soul

I have been meditating a lot on the life of Joseph. He is one who early on in life had a sense of God's calling him to a high purpose in life. He had dreams. He had a position of favor in his family. I wonder how many times Joseph asked himself, "What happened?" ...Why did his family turn on him and reject him? How could he end up in a dungeon when he had tried so serve and walked in integrity, even in captivity? How had his life spun so wildly out of control? I can identify so much with Joseph and the questions that undoubtedly entered into his mind in those dark days of imprisonment. Yet, we've read Joseph's story from beginning to end and we know that those days were part of God's plan. God never lost control and He never made a mistake in moving Joseph into exactly the place He wanted him to be for His purposes. Psalm 105:17-19 has an interesting insight regarding this time that Joseph spent in prison. It says that this was a testing time for Joseph. F.B. Meyer notes that where it says, "His soul entered into iron," we also might translate this into our language as saying, "Iron entered into his soul." I often think of God's testing as one in which He seeks to find our weaknesses, but in fact, a study of God's testing reveals that in these times, as we yield to Him, He creates in us strength. It is when we go through a trial that God is able to forge His strength in the place of our weaknesses. Without the times of trial and testing we would happily go along on our own strength, never realizing we are ill-prepared for the next phase of our lives.

Cosmic Battle in the Heavenlies

Click on this picture to see full size version!

This amazing picture is not from a science fiction movie, it was taken by the Spitzer Space Telescope, which lifted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on August 25, 2003. This picture is of several generations of stars amid curtains of clouds in a region called W5, about 6,500 light-years away. I am fascinated with photographs of microscopic or the telescopic that reveal a universe to us that is beyond our own ability to see! We cannot see this with our naked eye, but that does not mean that it does not exist. Until recently we did not have a way to even imagine such a picture! But, it also reminds me of a cosmic battle in the heavenlies, described in the Bible, which is also beyond our ability to see or even really comprehend. The Bible reveals times in which a certain person's eyes were opened to see the angelic hosts, but we are told that there is a place in the heavenlies where the armies of the LORD battle with the hosts of darkness. Seeing this picture makes one realize that we can never discount what our eyes cannot see!

A Little Bit of Whimsy