Feet That Bring Good Tidings

 

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Nahum 1:15 King James Version

¹⁵ Behold upon the mountains the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace!

 

We have had well over a week of three-digit temperatures (over 40ºC). At night it seldom gets down to 80º (27ºC). When it does, I can consider turning on the whole-house fan to bring fresh, cool air into the house. However, lately it has been too hot even at 4 o’clock in the morning.

The other morning, I went into the back yard. Hundreds of little clouds curdled the sky. It indicated another hot day, but right then it was pleasantly warm. Early dawn turned the hills and trees around me into dark silhouettes. The clouds reflected the city lights and were almost glowing. I watched, enchanted, to see if I could make out a star in the dark lacey background. Nothing!

After five minutes or so, I caught the faint glitter of a star. The star watcher in me chided me for not bring my phone with its Sky Map App. It would have suggested which star I was seeing. The star played hide-and-seek amongst the cloud-curdled sky. Then a second star joined the first one in a dance among the clouds. With patience I watched the dance until two or more stars joined in.

Clearly what I was seeing was the constellation of Orion. Adventists have long taught that Christ’s return would come through the “open space” in Orion.

Standing there in the pleasant early morning stillness, I sensed the feet of him who was bringing good tidings of peace. This was a far cry from the morning news of war, rampant crime, dirty politics, human trafficking, and runaway inflation.

Lord, we eagerly await your soon return!

 

 

[1] https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51915359715_47f8ed32dd_b.jpg

Africa by Starlight

 

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John 1:5

Good News Translation

⁵ The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has never put it out.

 In 1967 in the heart of Africa, my bus pulled into the tiny hamlet of Nyamuswa. I grabbed my weighty suitcase and a heavy box of books and stepped off onto the dirt road. It was two o’clock a.m. The bus roared off into the night

I stood there. No one was awake at night, and no electricity existed within 25 miles at that hour. No vehicles of any kind were on the road. Nyamuswa was pitch black. There were no phones, not even at home. Cell phones had not been invented. No one knew when I was coming. There was no way I could lug my heavy luggage the three miles to my home at Ikizu on foot. I knew no one in the hamlet. There was no gas station, no café.

Puzzled, I stood there in the night. I hadn’t planned what I would do at this point. Stars were bright in the moonless sky. They made the white-washed walls of the buildings visible, ghostly visible. About four or five low thatched roof buildings down on the right was the maternity clinic that always had several women with complications awaiting their babies. There would be a caretaker there in case an emergency happened at night.

My mind clutched at a faint hope. Maybe I could awaken her and leave my bags there. Of course, men were not welcome there, day or night. Every idiot knew that! I was a foreigner, mzungu. Maybe, just maybe, I could persuade her to let me store my bags there.

I trudged up to the dark, heavy wooden door. “Hodi!” I called loudly. I knocked on the door—no one knocks on a door; they always call “Hodi!”

After repeated calling, a highly suspicious voice replied “Ni nani?” (“Who’s there?”)

“Ni Wilton Clarke kutoka Ikizu!” (“I’m Wilton Clarke from Ikizu.”) With that I had practically exhausted my Swahili. Fortunately, she spoke more English than I did Swahili. After some protracted talking, she understood that I just wanted to leave my bags in her clinic until the next morning. She showed me where to put them, and I left her with a heartfelt “Asante sana!” I would be lying if I said there was not a hint of a worry as to whether I would see them the next morning.

Elsewhere I tell about how the military had been called to Nyamuswa, and they had shot 9 elephants in the Nyamuswa gardens, so wild animals did come into this area every so often. I hadn’t heard any actual reports about animals recently, but I did know that leopards would roam where ever they pleased and that they often killed just for the thrill of killing. Of course, you’ve heard about poisonous snakes and other undesirables. All of these things were in my mind as I started to walk, by starlight, the three miles home.

It was bright enough so I could see where the road surface was. The stars were brilliant. Orion was high in the sky along with its accompanying constellations. The Milky Way was spectacular. So, I really did enjoy the walk. I let myself into the house shortly after three o’clock. Sylvia expressed surprise and joy at seeing me. Later that morning I went back and picked up my bags. They had been moved but were totally unmolested.

Thank You, Lord, for the beauty of a still, dark night with a bit of tension yet filled with Your care.

 

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[1] https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/light-pollution-star-night-sky-england-rural-census-orion-campaign-a8873096.html

Seeing More Than You Expected

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Daniel 3:25 

New International Version (NIV)

²⁵ He said, “Look! I see four men walking around in the fire, unbound and unharmed, and the fourth looks like a son of the gods.”

Once or twice a year I would take several carloads of students to a computer show in Las Vegas. We spent the day looking at the latest innovations in the field of computers. We also marveled at the crazy lengths exhibitors went to trying to sell us their product. They showered us with relatively worthless gifts until everyone was walking around with a big bag of loot.

When the show closed, we would get in our cars and go to some casino where we could get a good meal for a very reasonable price. Then we headed south toward home in a caravan. As the miles ticked, by everyone would get sleepy—hopefully not the driver. South of Baker there are several exits off the I-15 freeway that go nowhere. There are no buildings, just a dirt road wandering off into the desert.

At the top of an exit I pulled over and stopped.

Students poured out of all the cars and ran up to me: “What’s wrong, Dr. Clarke?” they queried.

After a minute or two to let their eyes adjust to the darkness, I would point dramatically to the sky. “Look up!”

Their eyes turned heavenward, a unanimous awe inspired “Wow!” escaped their lips. They were city kids. They had never seen the majesty of a black sky with millions of stars, the Milky Way, the majesty of Orion.  Like Nebuchadnezzar in front of the fiery furnace, they would see far more than they ever knew existed. Their minds would begin to imagine how great God and His creation really are.

Thank You, O God, for being so immeasurably greater than our grandest concepts—and for being intimately interested in each of us.

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[i] https://www.allposters.com/-sp/The-Winter-Milky-Way-Constellations-Orion-Gemini-Canis-Major-and-Canis-Minor-over-a-Tamarisk-Posters_i13821350_.htm?UPI=PWCVFZ0&PODConfigID=4990719

Just Where Is Heaven?

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Ephesians 3:17-19

Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)

¹⁷ and that the Messiah may dwell in your hearts through faith. I pray that you, being rooted and firmly established in love, ¹⁸ may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the length and width, height and depth of God’s love,¹⁹ and to know the Messiah’s love that surpasses knowledge, so you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Some have pointed out that Heaven is a spot on the other side of the Great Orion Nebula. Furthermore God’s administrative center must be hidden behind this magnificent nebula.

On the other hand we view that God is the creator or prime generator of not only our Solar System but of the entire vast universe we detect beyond it. Whether your concept of this creation stretches back in time to a monumental week some 6,000 years ago--or to an inconceivably huge big bang some fourteen billion years ago--or some point of the past in between, you probably have breathed the query, “What was God doing in the eternity before this universe?”

St. Augustine quoted someone who quipped in response to this question, “He was preparing hell for those who pry into mysteries.”[ii] From the context of this remark Augustine clearly regarded this answer as an ill-posed jest.

But seriously, since God is “the same yesterday, today, and forever;”[iii] He was undoubtedly creating other universes. Where might he place these other universes? Well, certainly not within our universe; they must indeed be “beyond” or “outside” our universe, which was not here before He created it.

It is not impossible that Paul was hinting at a possibly vaguely understood concept when he expressed a four-dimensional measuring “length and width, height and depth” of God’s love. This concept just might be vital for our understanding of the presence of God. If there is another spatial dimension besides the three in our universe, then God would not have to be in a heaven over 1344 light years away. He might be just a scant millimeter away in this fourth spatial dimension and yet be beyond our sensory perception of Him.

Writers of the newly reincarnated science fiction Star Trek series hint at a similar notion of a space “warp”. How can space be warped unless it is in a dimension outside of the space itself?

Thank You, Lord, for being ever close to our side at all time!

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[i] http://maxpixel.freegreatpicture.com/Portal-Vortex-Time-Travel-Wormhole-Warp-Space-2514312

[ii] Book XI, Chapter 12 of the Confessions of St Augustine

[iii] Hebrews 13:8 (HCSB)