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God’s Amazing April Snows

A guest post today by Erin Moan, a naturalist who writes about God’s amazing creation. Yes, there’s possible snow in the forecast this week!

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It’s April. Honestly, who wants to see more snow? But snow, like most everything our Creator does, is an awesome work.

Snow begins with a tiny particle of dust high in the atmosphere. Water vapor in the air begins to freeze around the dust, and as it does so, the crystals freeze in patterns. These patterns are always six-sided. And yet, every single snowflake is different.

When you think of how many snowflakes it takes to make one snowfall, just in your town, and then think of the magnitude of the number of snowflakes that have fallen all over the world, not only this year but every year since the creation of the world, your head may begin to spin. In short, the word is incredible (which literally means unbelievable!).

There are several broad categories of snowflakes. Flat ones with wide, broad arms are called plates. These are the ones that you usually think of when you think of snowflakes. Then there are columns, which are shaped like a classic wooden pencil—six sided, of course. Some columns become “capped” on each end with a six-sided plate, resulting in something like a spool for thread. Needles are very thin, sharp columns. Dendrites are stars—similar to the plates, but with many branches and side branches, lacy and delicate.

We don’t often see the beauty of individual snowflakes because of their size, and also because many times when snow falls, the flakes clump together or break by the time they reach the ground. If you want to observe some of the intricate patterns for yourself, go out in the snow with a piece of black paper that has been in your refrigerator for awhile. The coolness of the paper will allow the flakes to remain for a few seconds while you examine them.

For some photographs of individual flakes that will blow your mind, visit Kenneth Libbrecht’s website, snowcrystals.com, and view the photo galleries, or check out his book, The Art of the Snowflake, from the library. It will be worth your time.

And all of the beauty of the individual flakes—most of it will melt away before any living person sees it. Still, it is God’s delight to make each flake an individual work of art. Even in April.

　

“All you have made will praise you, O Lord, and your saints will extol you.” Psalm 145:10

“If the Lord Almighty had consulted me before embarking on Creation, I should have recommended something simpler.” -Alphonso the Wise (1221-1289)

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No escape … such comfort!

My sisters and I have often used the line, “I just wish God would leave a note on the counter and tell me what to do.”  As a matter of fact, just last week I had decisions, choices to make, and I was hoping to wake up in the morning and find my calendar filled out in His handwriting. I wanted everything to be clear, distinct, unambiguous … safe.

There are times, those wonderful, glorious, reassuring, secure times, when we see with a Spirit-given clarity where we are to walk. But what about those nights when we’re still wide awake at three, or those days saturated with questions of how? where? when? should I?

Hebrews 11 says that faith hopes in what it does not see. Faith steps out in the darkness, not knowing what waits, but feeling the hand that guides and the love that surrounds.

How can I know God has asked me to follow a certain path? Can I be certain that I haven’t just talked myself into believing this? How do I know God is leading me?

Perhaps the answer is this simple: God says He will guide us.

Can we believe Him?

I can never escape from your Spirit!
   I can never get away from your presence!
If I go up to heaven, you are there;
   if I go down to the grave, you are there.
If I ride the wings of the morning,
   if I dwell by the farthest oceans,
even there your hand will guide me,
   and your strength will support me.

For many years, these verses simply told me of God’s omnipresence; He is everywhere. No escaping God. Today, I see instead the verses that say, No matter where I walk, your hand will guide me, and your strength will support me.

God’s hand is always on my life. My times are in His hands. And not only does He hold my life in His hands, but His hand guides me. And His strength supports me.

What comfort!

That is, by the way, one of the names Jesus gave the Holy Spirit — the Comforter. In John 14, Jesus says He is leaving the earth, but the Spirit of God would come to believers, and He will never leave you. He is the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth.

Father, Jesus, Spirit, help our unbelief!

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Scripture: Psalm 139:7-10, John 14:16-17

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Prodigal Daughter

For the last five decades, I’ve had it wrong. I’m willing to bet that many of you do, too.

I’ve been feeling very much like a prodigal daughter lately. Oh, no. I haven’t run away from the Father and I’ve not been living with the pigs. And there’s definitely not been any riotous living. But I just wasn’t getting enough time with the one to whom I promised my life. I wanted to be back home, not out wandering about.

So I went to Luke 15, that well-known story about the boy we call The Prodigal Son. He asked for his inheritance, left home for what he thought was going to be a great life on his own, and wasted everything. Ended up working for a farmer and tending the hogs. Finally decided life at home was much better, even for his dad’s servants, so he went back and threw himself on his father’s mercy, asking just to be a hired hand.  Anything, just let me come home.

I went to Luke 15 because one of the verses from that story kept ringing in my head. When the son returns, the father says to the older stay-at-home brother, “We had to celebrate this happy day. For your brother was dead and has come back to life.”

That’s the assurance I wanted…that the parts of my life that had been feeling listless and weak lately (I refused to say dead) would be given new life. God is all about giving new life. Just as many of us sometimes need our caffeine, I needed … well, something much stronger than coffee. I wanted to get back to where I belonged and I wanted a shot of new life.

So (as I’ve already said twice) I went to Luke 15. And read the story. And two rather remarkable things happened.

First, I realized I’d forgotten that this chapter opens with another story. The first story is about a man who has a hundred sheep. One of them wanders too far away from the flock and gets lost. The shepherd goes searching for his one lost sheep. And when he has found it, he will joyfully carry it home on his shoulders.

I realize this passage talks about someone who is spiritually “lost,” but I heard my Father say, “Child, when you wander a little too far, I’ll always find you and carry you home.”

I think it’s so significant that the shepherd carries his sheep home. The helpless thing didn’t have to find her own way and trot home under her own steam. She couldn’t. Our shepherd finds us and carries us back to where we belong, especially when we are helpless to get ourselves back there. Jesus says again and again that He is our shepherd. His spirit living within us draws us back to Him. No one and no thing can snatch us away from Him.

There was the comfort I needed.

Ah, but I also needed a bit of correction. That was the second outcome of this reading.

I finally learned what “prodigal” means. Yup. That’s what I’ve had wrong all these years. I always thought it meant, in the spiritual sense, someone who turns his back on God. Someone who runs away in rebellion. In this story, I always focused on the leaving home and the riotous living. A prodigal child was one who thought life was better elsewhere, got himself into trouble, and came back home.

So, being the word fanatic that I am, I had to check with Mr. Webster. Surprise! Here’s what Webster says. Prodigal: exceedingly or recklessly wasteful OR a person who wastes his means.  (Did you know that?)

OK, Lord, I got it. Lately I have been wasteful. I’ve been reckless with what you’ve given me, with my time, my choices, my energy, my attention. And so I’ve wandered, drifted.

But my shepherd found me, picked me up, and carried me back where I belong.

Celebrate that God can bring that which was dead back to life again. He does it every day.

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Scriptures: Luke 15, John 10:28-30

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Pray for us

Lest you think I’m complaining or whining about life in this country, I’m not! Yes, we are indeed blessed with an abundance of things and freedoms and opportunities. I am very thankful to be right where I am.

I just don’t want my vision to be limited to my earthly circumstances. I want to know–and have!–the hope and riches of my inheritance. I don’t want the abundance of everything we do enjoy to interfere with my relationship to the Almighty God. 

(Wow. That’s a pretty amazing statement, isn’t it — That we made-of-dust humans can have a relationship with the Almighty!)

As the team who went to Haiti gave their report last Sunday, one young man recounted his conversation with a Haitian who said in parting, “We will pray for you.”

And what I’ve been thinking as I write this week is this:  

Perhaps we here in the States are the ones who most need help and prayers as we seek to live in the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ.