Thought for the Day – The Skies Proclaim the Work of His Hands

As some of you will know, I like to go running. Or rather, I like to eat food but don’t want to get fat, so I exercise proportionately! I run relatively early in the morning usually getting home by 7 and at this time of year, it’s the perfect time for seeing the sunrise and the moon set. And last week was particularly special as we had a ‘pink supermoon’ on Tuesday night/Wednesday morning. Although the moon was most noticeably brighter at 3:35AM, it looked its most impressive in the morning, before ducking below the horizon while I was out running. And as I ran towards the moon set, behind me was an amazing orangey-pink sunrise, colouring the clouds and casting long shadows in front of me.

So as well as wondering whether I was lost on my new route, I had time to think about God’s creation. Yes it’s spoilt by sin and we see this all around us but in God’s common grace we live on an amazing planet – a planet that one astrophysicist says is one in 700 quintillion in terms of its ability to support life as ours does, he concludes that Earth perhaps shouldn’t exist! This sits well with Christians as we know that Earth is the focus of His salvation plan which has been unfolding since before time began and will continue into eternity.

Back to the supermoon, last week the moon appeared 7% bigger and 14% brighter than an average full moon because it was the closest to the earth it will get all year on its elliptical orbit. Nothing in God’s creation happens by accident so we can conclude that God designed it this way in the knowledge that we, his creatures, would be fascinated by it, in awe of it. I actually heard on the news that as a result of the supermoon, people were feeling calmer and more relaxed about the current state of lockdown we’re in! So Christian or not, God’s creation is designed to turn heads. And we know it was designed to turn our heads to God.

The psalmists have a lot to say about creation. In Psalm 19:1 David says: The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands – perhaps he’d just stayed up all night to see a supermoon! Psalm 33:6-8 says: The Lord merely spoke, and the heavens were created. He breathed the word, and all the stars were born. He assigned the sea its boundaries and locked the oceans in vast reservoirs. Let the whole world fear the Lord, and let everyone stand in awe of him.

So I’d like to just encourage you to take up the offer of your once-daily exercise and go and experience God’s creation, and stand in awe of Him with the psalmists. Obviously, you should be submitting to the authorities in this and exercising social distancing. But I can safely say you won’t come within 100 metres of anyone in a field at 6 in the morning!

Despite all that’s wrong in the world, all things have been created through Jesus and for Him and experiencing some of this creation which isn’t tainted by sin may be just what you need for a fresh perspective of God and all He has and continues to do for those who love Him.

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