At midnight, stars reflected in the river, 'til one got up and shot across the sky. Another angel falling out of heaven? No: firefly.
The crickets filled the stillness with their chorus; a riverbank of frogs is counterpoint as night lays out its wonders all before us. The dark anoints
'til pale cliffs catch the light of early morning and conqu'ring dawn surmounts the hillside's pow'r. A herald birdsong greets the day a-borning: the bright'ning hour.
And then the river gleams back at the glory: Deep calls to deep, and blue proclaims to blue, and not a word is lost of all their story who call to you.
Between the river and the light of heaven, the canyon's arms encircle all the world. An element of this, I feel it given and praise you, Lord.
So the LORD God cast a deep sleep on the man, and while he was asleep, he took out one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. The LORD God then built up into a woman the rib that he had taken from the man. When he brought her to the man, the man said: “This one, at last, is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; this one shall be called ‘woman, ‘ for out of ‘her man’ this one has been taken.” That is why a man leaves his father and mother and clings to his wife, and the two of them become one flesh. —Genesis 2:18-24
We come from the dust of the earth, and back to the dust we shall go as naked at death as at birth; our hands shall be empty once more.
So Adam from Eden came forth to live by the sweat of his brow, to wrestle with thistle and thorn until he was laid in the ground.
But, oh, not alone shall he lie, nor Eve shall not lie there alone, for sprung from them both came the Christ: In him all their sorrows are known.
He came to be shaped of the dust and born of his mother in blood, to share all our striving with us and go back again to the mud.
For he is the bone of our bones, and he is the flesh of our flesh. No more do we walk on unknown, but he bears our life and our death
to open the eyes of our hearts and raise us again to new life as sinless as back at the start, to make us forever his bride.
A universe expanding, and every day a flood leaves one more ark on Ararat somewhere that you call good. Yet earthquakes and collapses, both lava flow and flame, creation and calamity are calling out your name.
And all that is or will be is but a grain of sand; the great star-filled infinity a pebble in your hand. The stars burn down to ashes and galaxies collide, but not an atom perishes unnoticed by your eye.
Myself am not a minute in geologic terms, still less in your infinitude— but you have seen and heard. My growth and my expansion, my crumbling and collapse: Though I fall to catastrophe, I fall into your grasp.
Entered in a contest; did not win. To the tune CONDITOR ALME SIDERUM (“Creator of the Stars of Night”):
Creator of the stars of night and of the sunbeam daily bright, of every glint and grade between, all the shadows yet unseen,
we praise you for the light of day, for colors bright and shades of gray. We praise you for each shining star and all the darknesses there are.
Beyond all colors though you dwell, each one some hint of you can tell. Teach us to read the mystery in every glimmer that we see.
And when all vision falls behind, still more your glories we shall find where all our words to silence fall, for we could never name them all.
Yet here and now your mercy's this: You show yourself in all that is. This wondrous multiplicity is one in your infinity.
Praise God dividing night from day, and God who on the waters played, and God who in creation dwells, more praise than we can ever tell!
The image is from the European Space Agency. It is listed as the LH 95 star forming region of the Large Magellanic Cloud. The image was taken using the Hubble Space Telescope. By ESA/Hubble, CC BY 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=8788068
New-create me, God my Father;
heav'n with earth in my alloy.
Sweep your winds across my waters;
shape my formlessness and void.
Set the land and sea in order;
separate the dark and light.
Let each evening have its morning;
let my days lie down in night.
Stars like heartbeats mark the moments;
arcs of sunlight count the breath.
Part the waters with your doming:
blood and tears and gall and sweat.
Earth and ocean, set them teeming
with the life that you supply:
Creatures on your mercy leaning,
fruitful, may they multiply.
I am one, your own creation:
Plunge your hands into my earth.
Plant a garden in my chaos;
grow your plenty in my dearth.
Make me, God; remake me ever:
work and sabbath, drought and flood.
Shape your new earth and new heaven;
see your work and call it good.
Before the heavens or the earth,
before a single star,
before th'unveiling universe,
from age to age, you are.
And when the stars have all gone out,
dissolved in entropy,
the sun has gone forever down,
beyond our end, you'll be.
The wisdom spoken at the first
that let there be some light,
you played in all the newborn earth
and found in it delight.
You helped the maker shape the clay
before God breathed in us,
and then you taught us words to say,
God's breath out of our dust.
Then come again, O Word Unfurled
upon creation's scroll,
delighting in the weary world:
Come now, and make us whole.
For we were always crumbling dust,
upheld but by your work.
Come back and breathe once more in us.
Speak us again, O Word.
Before the LORD the whole universe is as a grain from a balance or a drop of morning dew come down upon the earth. But you have mercy on all, because you can do all things; and you overlook people’s sins that they may repent. For you love all things that are and loathe nothing that you have made; for what you hated, you would not have fashioned. And how could a thing remain, unless you willed it; or be preserved, had it not been called forth by you? But you spare all things, because they are yours, O LORD and lover of souls, for your imperishable spirit is in all things! Therefore you rebuke offenders little by little, warn them and remind them of the sins they are committing, that they may abandon their wickedness and believe in you, O LORD!
Creator of all things that are,
of all that's been or yet shall be,
each mote of dust and shining star
is but a speck to all you see.
The universe a grain of sand,
a fading drop of morning dew,
is yet a treasure in your hand,
you hold and constantly renew.
For all that is must be upheld,
or all would crumble into dust,
and even dust to nothing melt,
if ever you abandoned us.
Do not, O maker, let us sink
into the nothingness unmade!
But hold us still, through all you think,
and let us ever be remade!
You would not fashion what you hate,
but breathe your grace in all you've called,
and early though we hark or late,
you pour your mercy on us all.
For we are yours, creator God,
called into being by your will,
and though we wander from your law,
you look on us with mercy still.
Give us the time still to repent;
give us the grace that turns our hearts;
oh, draw us to you step by step,
and from you let us never part!
The Latin “sidus” (“siderum”) means more than just a “star”, encompassing also the sun (technically also a star), the moon, and the planets, as well as all the heavenly constellations and comets and meteors.[1] At first glance, this cosmic kaleidoscope of purple, blue and pink offers a strikingly beautiful — and serene — snapshot of the cosmos. However, this multi-coloured haze actually marks the site of two colliding galaxy clusters, forming a single object known as MACS J0416.1-2403 (or MACS J0416 for short). MACS J0416 is located about 4.3 billion light-years from Earth, in the constellation of Eridanus. This new image of the cluster combines data from three different telescopes: the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope (showing the galaxies and stars), the NASA Chandra X-ray Observatory (diffuse emission in blue), and the NRAO Jansky Very Large Array (diffuse emission in pink). Each telescope shows a different element of the cluster, allowing astronomers to study MACS J0416 in detail. As with all galaxy clusters, MACS J0416 contains a significant amount of dark matter, which leaves a detectable imprint in visible light by distorting the images of background galaxies. In this image, this dark matter appears to align well with the blue-hued hot gas, suggesting that the two clusters have not yet collided; if the clusters had already smashed into one another, the dark matter and gas would have separated. MACS J0416 also contains other features — such as a compact core of hot gas — that would likely have been disrupted had a collision already occurred. Together with five other galaxy clusters, MACS J0416 is playing a leading role in the Hubble Frontier Fields programme, for which this data was obtained. Owing to its huge mass, the cluster is in fact bending the light of background objects, acting as a magnifying lens. Astronomers can use this phenomenon to find galaxies that existed only hundreds of million years after the big bang. For more information on both Frontier Fields and the phenomenon of gravitational lensing, see Hubblecast 90: The final frontier. Links Hubblecast 90: The final frontier Link to Hubblesite release
In him were made all things,
of heaven and of earth;
all thrones and pow'rs, unseen and seen,
in Christ they have their birth.
He wrote them in the world—
all being is his book—
and signed his name on every scroll
when goodness said, “'Tis good.”
Not lost across the sea
or taken to the skies,
but printed here in everything
it meets our wond'ring eyes:
the letters of his name,
the spelling of his laws,
in every heart is writ the same
and spills from every mouth.
The Word himself is love:
It's stamped into our bones,
and through our flesh and blood it moves,
and from our hands it flows.
We need not wander far,
for he has come so near
and pressed himself upon our hearts,
the Word we always hear.
I ask you to show me what has never been hidden,
for eyes to behold what has always been there.
In the world you created, unbound and unbidden,
you have set there the seal of the love that you bear.
So I open my eyes but without comprehending
that you are the light which alone lets me see,
that my heart is too finite for love neverending,
that all I behold is a fraction of real.
But you fill every fragment with all of your nature,
and the little I hold has your presence complete,
so each minute creation contains the creator
as he kneels down before them to cherish their feet.
And I nothing but wonder at love I can't fathom,
and the eyes of my heart will forever be blind
as the maker of all somersaults in an atom,
while the ears of my heart hear him say he is mine.
Before the deeps were hollowed out
to hold the rivers running down,
before the mountains rose above,
the Lord's delight welled up in love.
To set the sky and light the stars
and fix the sea within its shores,
to spin the world through night and day:
The Lord's delight was then at play.
And when the Lord a garden laid
and man and woman there wre made,
God filled them with the gift of grace,
delighting in the human race.
God's image sculpted out of dust;
God's spirit breathed in each of us,
our frail and fragile lives it fills—
oh, God's delight is in us still!
Then let us love each image here
with love that casts away our fear.
In every heart the Lord still plays:
Let us delight in all God makes!
To God the Father sing your praise
and God the Son in whom we're made
and God the Spirit whose delight
fills every hour of day and night!
Kate Bluett 