Oh Great Light of the world

So, here we go, I'm finally blogging!

"Could we with ink the ocean fill,
And were the skies of parchment made,
Were every stalk on earth a quill,
And every man a scribe by trade,
To write the love of God above,
Would drain the ocean dry.
Nor could the scroll contain the whole,
Though stretched from sky to sky."
-The Love of God by Frederick M. Lehman

I have spent many good times under the stars. When we had that meteor shower a few years back, my dad woke us all up to go lay in our front yard and watch the lights fall. It was amazing and, if not for the street lamps on our street, might have been the best night sky I have ever seen. The first time I went stargazing here at Berry, I saw at least 10 shooting stars. I have always been the one person who misses those, so to see so many in one night was incredible, especially for me. And of course, there was that night over fall break when a few of us crazy kids slept under the stars by the fire (and Tara, Casie, and I froze!).

The most amazing night sky I have ever seen was probably in Arizona. We were in the middle of nowhere and it was so dark that I could not see my hand in front of my face. A group of us just stood out in the middle of a field and looked up. The longer we looked, the more stars began to show themselves. I have never seen so many stars. We even saw the tiny flashing light of a satellite, orbitting the earth.

The sky never ceases to amaze me. There is not a day when I don't look up into the blue and white, or even the grey of the lighted sky and marvel. And there is certainly not a night when the mysterious light of the moon and stars does not catch my eye. I remember writing a poem once, I was probably in middle school; I wrote that the night sky was like a huge piece of black velvet with holes punched in it. The light of heaven comes through the holes, giving us a glimpse of God's glory and the reality we were made for. Perhaps it's cheesy, but I thought it was brilliant at the time.

One of my science teachers in middle school told us that the more she learned about science the harder it was to believe in God. But as I learned more about how my body is made and formed, the countless genes that make up who I am, the way nature works together in intricate perfection, the more I realized that only God could have made all this. I see the sun gleaming off the last of the blazing orange and red leaves just outside the window, and all I can think is how marvelous He is. Nature, and every other good and perfect gift, gives us a glimpse of who God is and what the "good life," as we call it in my Perennial Questions class, is to be. It's pieces of heaven on earth. We are supposed to recognize it here and try to bring as much of it here as possible.

Light is eternal. To move at the speed of light is to escape time. The light of a star in a vaccuum will go on and on forever. Light cannot be seen, you can only see what reflects it. According to physics, light does not exist. It cannot be proven by any mathematical equation or scientific theory; it can only be experienced. God gives us little glimpses of His goodness to better understand Him and our purpose: He is the Light and He calls us to reflect Him in this world.

-Joy