Tag / Wonder

by Greg

The Intricacy Of Us

I recently watched a Discovery Channel show titled 2057: Future Car or something like that. It’s more than just about the cars of the future. Really it’s about life 50 years from now. Projected by scientists and theorists who feel they are on the current cutting edge of technology and such sciences.

A good portion of the show was both fascinating and scary. It relates to the post below actually. The vision the makers of this show have of the future is a very, very “connected” future. Every aspect of life is interconnected to the others via a centralized network. Everything is known about everyone. The idea is that this makes life much safer, better, but… really? I think not. Maybe that helped me want to “disconnect” (see the previous entry).

Cars that automatically correct errors of human drivers, clothes that report your vitals to doctors every three minutes or so, cameras and GPS systems tracking everyone everywhere. Yikes.

Scariness aside, one segment that caught my attention was the part about robots. The documentary makers made no excuses in saying that robots are not ready for everyday use just yet. They are really hard to make work. There has been great progress, but it has been very slow-going, and very difficult. The interesting part to me was when they were trying to just get a humanoid robot to walk, the creators said, “It’s incredible how sophisticated the human body is, even just the balance it takes to take a step.”

How incredible we are! All these brilliant minds have spent years trying to make a machine that can do what a two year old can do! Amazing. It was fun to watch. I don’t doubt that we will progress and make something that can mimic human life more and more… but God has already done that! Holy cow. He’s just amazing, and I am blown away right now at his design, creativity, and his handiwork in general.

To think that there is no Designer, seems to me you are either just not seeing what I am seeing, or denying it, or maybe just stubborn. And I’m just talking about the intricacies of the human body and how it all works together. I don’t know the complete process of how we came into being, but I have no doubt just from what I have observed that we have quite intricately & skillfully been designed.

I’m not trying to start any arguments here, but as always comments/thoughts are welcome. It was just another moment today when I thought, “How can anyone think this is a sequence of events begun by random chance?” I think some might credit a universal “Life Force” rather than a being (God), but it seems the prevailing scientific thought precludes the possibility of a Designer… and that just seems so crazy to me.

I love that we are fearfully and wonderfully made. We are just amazing.

by Greg

Which Way Did They Go?


One of the stranger things from our three days here at the hospital has been watching the migration of the Canadian geese. Thousands – definitely tens of thousands – of these cool birds (that resemble Klingon birds of prey as they descend to the water) have been flying past the big windows in the room where Emma was born.

Oddly enough, though in March geese should be flying north, it sure seemed like they were flying south. We figured they knew what they were doing… so we accepted the direction of their giant goose arrows as north, against our better judgment.

Even more oddly…

This morning when we woke up, the geese were all flying back the other direction! Ha! And, that direction was what I originally thought was north. Sweet vindication! 🙂

A nurse (who seemed equally fascinated by them) reminded us that the lake is maybe just a mile south of us, and that was their southerly destination.

It all makes sense now. And it’s still incredibly cool! Just watching SO many animals working in concert toward the same goal, same destination. Watching what God has designed into His creation is just a reminder of how beautifully simple and complex it all is. I won’t elaborate now, but there have been many reminders through the whole process of the birth of Emma at how simply mind-blowing God’s creation is, and how evident it is that he made it, and holds it all together.

Even the Klingon geese. 🙂

by Greg

All Things Together

I’m writing this from 30,000 feet. We have a perfectly clear, sunny day for our return flight home. The view is majestic. It never ends. I never get tired of it. In fact, in between these sentences, I keep glancing over to make sure I don’t miss anything.

So far we have crossed three states, and the Rocky Mountains are well within view. The features below that would be so impressive when viewed from the ground are reduced to small bumps and lines.

Still pretty impressive.

The theme of the week for me seems to have been how everything works together. All that God has made is impressive enough on its own merit, but then when you consider how it all works together, all the more astounding.

I am seeing some of that from this 6-mile-high vantage point. The mountains very noticeably channel water from their tops to the surrounding area at the bottom. You can see “veins” where the water travels. On the more desert regions, the “arms” of the tributaries spread far out into the flat areas below the mountains. I can’t fully put it into words, but from up here, I can just see more clearly how everything works together.

This week as we paid several visits to the Pacific coast, we just kept marveling at the waves. They just never stopped. They were beautiful, and powerful all by themselves. But to see how they were bringing in the kelp for the birds and insects to eat, as well as cleaning out other things, like old shells. And it never stops. Wave after wave after wave. Constantly renewing itself.

The birds and otters were fun to watch too. They enjoyed the surf as much as we do. They would face into a wave, then duck down under it and come up on the other side. (Presumably to get some food, as well as to avoid a serious thrashing if they stayed above the water!)

We also found out this week that Pacific Grove is called Butterfly Village, USA. (Or something like that…) Monarch butterflies winter there. The big cool orange ones. They fly down from Canada each year and spend the winter in Pacific Grove’s warmer climate. Now, the problem is, those particular butterflies can’t have any idea how to get there. They are the fourth generation of butterflies that left Pacific Grove the previous summer. The generation that travels to Pacific Grove lives 8 months, so they can make the long journey, and survive the winter. The others only live for 6 weeks. So there are 3 generations born up north that live 6 weeks, and the fourth then travels back to Pacific Grove. But how do they know where to go? The question was posed on an information board in the Monarch Habitat and simply answered, “We don’t know.” We have ideas, but we really don’t know.

Everything just seems to work together.

All week I kept thinking of the verse in Colossians that says that Jesus holds all things together. All of this makes a lot of sense when you just accept that verse at face value. An amazing Creator made all of this stuff to work together, and he continues to make it work togehter. Incredible.

We had such a great time seeing it happen right before our eyes this week. God is so amazing, and his creation is just one small testament to that.

by Greg

The Window Seat

I forgot how amazing it is to fly. I think I probably felt that way as a kid when we would fly back and forth from Venezuela, and various trans-Atlantic flights. But I just forgot.

I am so glad I had a window seat!

The view is just amazing. To watch the things on the ground get smaller, and smaller. To eventually go above the clouds. And today, we went above two layers of clouds! First to 10,000 feet, and then to 38,000. Awe inspiring beauty. Big puffy clouds as far as you can see. Jen described it as an “ocean of clouds.”

The shadows of the higher altitude clouds on the lower ones are fun. The light blue sky fading into a darker blue as you look up. The small hole in the clouds allowing me to see the reflection of the sun off of the lake below. Amazing.

I’m really, really glad I got a window seat!

by Greg

Made It

Perseid Meteor Shower
Well, I made it. After finishing my book, then writing about it a bit here… I did another fun project, and then watched the movie World’s Fastest Indian. Good movie.

Well, all of that took me up to about 4:30am. PERFECT for catching a sky full of meteors! 🙂

I only saw maybe 6 or 7, but they were pretty cool. Unfortunately, there was a bit of cloud cover. But when there were holes, I saw some meteors! And, I did get a nice view of Mars, too.

Well, I suppose I should head to bed now… 🙂

by Greg

By George, You May Be Right!

Black Holes
Tonight as I listened to a podcast about black holes and the research some folks are doing surrounding the somewhat theoretical existence of such things, I thought, “What if we get to heaven and the guys who work so hard to figure out how stuff got started actually turn out to be more right than wrong? That’d surprise AIG a bit…”

I am certain that once things are no longer seen “through a glass dimly“, many will be shocked at how things really are. Including me. And I really think it would be neat to find out that God in fact did somehow create these super enormous galaxies with black holes inside of them to somehow balance all that needed balancing in them.

And, regarding the billions of years… what if somehow God did take that long… but somehow also did it in a day? The Bible does reference God being unhindered by time (1000 years is like a day is like 1000 years). It’s entirely possible that it is both things simultaneously. I still contend that we just can’t know.

But I do love to see all the stuff we do figure out, or at least… sort of figure out. If you’d care to read the article, click the photo above. Pretty cool stuff. (The piranha thing is a bit strange, though…)

by Greg

I Love The Sky!

Full Moon over Palmyra
I am simply captivated by the sky. I always have been. I love looking at the night sky the most, I’d say… but really anything that happens in the vast expanse is just mesmerizing to me. Various cloud formations, beautiful colors at sunset (not too many sunrises in the ol’ memory banks…), and I do especially love the slightly transparent looking moon in the bright blue daytime sky.

Over the past couple weeks there have been some stunning sky-scapes. From the aforementioned dazzling sunsets, featuring a darkening blue sky splashed with orange and pink and purple fades that I would have a hard time duplicating in Photoshop, to some just astounding sun rays. When you have a clear sky except for one fantastically puffy, white cloud… which floats directly in front of the sun… and it’s a hazy, humid day… you can get some phenomenal sun rays blasting out from every side of that cloud!

Beautiful Rainbow!
We also saw that rainbow! After a late evening shower, the sun came out again in full force and as the rain passed to the east, the sun setting in the west dazzled all around with a full rainbow that was as vibrant as any I have ever seen. The contrast against the dark blue/gray sky was incredible. I literally was transfixed upon it for the entire 25 minute highway trip home. It was probably a bit dangerous… I couldn’t take my eyes off of it!

Then tonight, I took a bag of trash outside and happened to see the nearly full moon. (It’s full tomorrow.) Spectacular! Super clear night… the moon was lighting up everything! I decided to try and snap a couple photos, and the above as well as the two below were the best of the bunch! It’s pretty hard to get a good clear photo of the moon, I guess!!! I tried various shutter speeds, and the auto modes on the camera… finally got the best photo (I think) when I stood under the street light! Ha! Must have balanced the brightness of the moon somehow.

Well, I don’t usually post so many photos, but… had to share these. Hope you enjoy them. Photos can not capture the grandeur of the real thing though.

I do love the sky. 🙂

Beautiful Rainbow!
Full Moon over Palmyra
Full Moon over Palmyra

by Greg

Interesting Coincidence

Full Solar Eclipse
We found a neat little podcast from NASA called “Ask An Astronomer” that is definitely very cool for the kiddos. (Mom & Dad like it too!) They are little three minute answers to some big questions regarding things in the sky.

Today we watched a couple: one about lunar eclipses, and one about solar eclipses. Both Jen and I caught a pretty humorous line from someone who either didn’t want to – or didn’t feel “free” to – admit that God could have had some part in putting that stuff in the sky.

Speaking on solar eclipses, the astronomer said, “In an interesting coincidence, the moon is 400 times smaller than the sun, but it’s also 400 times closer to the Earth than the sun. So they appear to be the same size in our sky.”

An interesting coincidence… 🙂

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again… there are just too many “interesting coincedences” for me to think that what we see around us has created itself over billions of years. I’m no weirdo who thinks I know how everything got here exactly… not by a long shot. I just can’t believe Someone didn’t have a hand in putting it there. It’s too amazing to not have some Originator.

But anyway… thought that was a funny line. Interesting Coincidence. 🙂

by Greg

Circles

Milky Way Galaxy
I watched a few PBS shows throughout the course of the day yesterday. Some of it was just listening, as I was working while listening to the audio on my laptop. You can watch many of the NOVA episodes online. Well, I happened to choose the Monster Of The Milky Way, and then later, The Elegant Universe.

The first show was about the discovery of some massive black holes at the centers of galaxies, including our own. I am fascinated by all things in space, so this was cool to learn about/see. Then I watched the Elegant Universe later at night, while getting some more work done in my office. It was a fascinating (and somewhat confusing!) look at the String Theory. I can’t even pretend to summarize it for you here, but the called it the “Theory of Everything” 🙂 The people they interviewed were pretty sure that if they can prove their theory, it will explain everything about our universe. 🙂

Overall, it was an attempt to understand the forces of gravity, electro-magnetic forces, time, and various “dimensions” of our universe. From super-huge galaxies, to sub-sub atomic particles. It’s theoretical in some ways still, but they were looking at the parts of the tiny parts that make up the parts of an atom i think. 🙂 Sparticles? Sparticus? Something like that. Just amazing stuff.

AND… here’s the weird thing I noticed…

God likes circles. Everything in the universe from the VERY VERY VERY small to the VERY VERY VEEEERY BIG… goes in circles. Electrons circle the nucleus of an atom. Those make up everything, right? So, that’s a lot of circles. Then let’s get bigger. A lot bigger. The earth spins. The moon circles the earth. The earth circles the sun. The sun circles the center of the milky way. The milky way is moving… not sure if it’s spinning… but… how could we tell? And everything else around what I just mentioned is ALSO SPINNING in some kind of CIRCLE.

Why did He make so many circles?

Anyway, it’s very cool that you can watch these programs online in their entirety. I don’t know how real such a theory is, but it’s fascinating to watch, and I love looking at the stuff that God made. It is awe inspiring every single time. From the way-too-tiny to the super big. And we probably don’t even know the half of it!

So click the links above if you’re interested. Perhaps you’ll be awed as well. 🙂