Things I've Pondered

Things I have pondered while locking the chooks up at night
 
Each night I wander up the hill on our property and lock the chooks away safely for the night. I could do it earlier, but I enjoy going up in the dark. On clear nights it always takes me longer because I get captivated by the spectacular display of stars. The Milky Way is glorious and the clouds of Magellan, seemingly so small but made up of billions of stars, is just mind blowing. In the stillness and the dark, under such an enormous canopy of stars, it is easy to feel tiny and insignificant, the immensity of the Universe is hard to grasp.

Some nights walking through the dark, my headlamp picks out a minute “star” in the grass. On closer inspection this sparkle of light is actually the eyes of a spider reflecting the light of my headlamp back at me. While I have been contemplating the massive expanse of the Universe, a little spider has been spending all night navigating the expanse of my back lawn.
 
This contrast of my Universe and the “spiders’ universe” got me thinking about God’s amazing love. 
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The God who created the heavens and the earth by his word, who is far greater than my eye can hope to see on clearest of night, cares about me. I am always amazed by the beginning of the Gospel of John where we learn that everything came into being through the Word, and that Word became flesh, Jesus. Jesus has become the light of the world. It’s as if God swapped the expanse of the night stars, for the limited space of my back yard living life in the human scale.
 
Even more stunning than the night sky, is the fact that the almighty God who created the Universe, took the form of a man, who was human enough to know the same fragility of life that I face. It comforts me in times of uncertainty, that even Jesus had to struggle with what he faced. In the garden of Gethsemane, knowing he was about to face the cross and for a period be separated from the Father because of my sin,  Jesus prayed if what was to come could be taken from him it would be his preference. Then he submitted himself to the father and said “not my will but yours”.
 
When I’m out at night, star gazing while putting the chooks away, I don’t feel insignificant at all. I feel a closeness and intimacy with an all-powerful God, who knows what it’s like to be like me, he understands me and yet loves me. How amazing is our God.
 
This “old school” song came to mind, for me it captures both the greatness of God and yet the very personal relationship we have with him. Click here to hear this song.