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Category: Nature

Majestic and Magnificent

Majestic and Magnificent

It’s 14,410 feet of majesty and magnificence.  On a clear day in the Puget Sound, it isn’t just visible; it’s prominent.  In fact, it dominates the skyline!

Situated just 40 miles Southeast of my home in Tacoma, Mount Rainier often appears as a giant hologram … startlingly vivid but technologically created.  Only it’s not.  It’s absolutely real!

Also referred to as Mount Tahoma, it certainly isn’t the highest mountain in the world.  At least 16 other mounts are supposedly taller … some by only the smidge of a few feet.  Nevertheless, Rainier is the tallest mountain in Washington State and the Cascade Range, and as inspiring a mountain as can be found anywhere. 

The reason for its impressiveness is due to what scientists call “topographic prominence,” or how far a mountain extrudes from the surface around it.  In fact, of the 128 “ultra-prominent mountain peaks” in the United States, Mount Rainier is ranked third!  It has a topographic prominence of 13,210 feet.  Majestic and magnificent indeed!

Tahoma is the most heavily glaciated peak in the lower 48 states.  Its 26 major glaciers and 36 square miles of permanent snow and ice add to the mountain’s striking view year-round.  These glaciers spawn five sizable rivers: the Cowlitz, Carbon, Mowich, Nisqually and Puyallup.

But under the cold and beautiful ice rages fiery lava.  Rainier is an active volcano.  While it hasn’t produced a major eruption in about 500 years, it is the source of frequent seismic activity (earthquakes). There is a high probability of future eruptions, making it one of the most dangerous volcanoes in the world.  It’s sheer size, towering over 3-plus million people, as well as the significant mantle of ice adorning it, could result in massive lahars devastating huge swaths of populated countryside.  Not only is Mount Rainier majestic and magnificent, it is daunting and intimidating as well!

I’ve often thought that Mount Rainier is an apt symbol of the Lord.

The state of Washington is blessed with not just multiple volcanoes and multiple mountains; it’s blessed with multiple mountain ranges!  But none of the other many mountains can compare with Tahoma.  It clearly rises above all the rest.  As does our God.  There are many other “gods,” but none can compete with the Lord.  He stands above all.  He stands alone.

Interestingly, there are actually three peaks atop the mountain: Columbia Crest, Point Success, and Liberty Cap.  The Bible describes the One-and-Only-God as comprising three persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  One mountain yet three peaks; one God yet three persons.  Certainly not a perfect illustration, but fascinating nonetheless.

There is no denying the hidden danger and potential ferocity of the volcano that is Mount Rainier.  It can surely bring destruction.  So too can the God of the Bible.  There is nothing more lethal than the Lord.  To ignore Him or reject Him inevitably leads to ruination.

Tahoma is gorgeous – striking to the eyes and stirring to the emotions!  But there is nothing more beautiful than our God in all his glory.  Nothing in all of creation, not even the shimmering angels, can compare.  Yet God’s greatest beauty, his ultimate glory, resides in the fact that he saved sinners.  God’s grace demonstrated by God himself taking our place and dying our death, is an act of unspeakable loveliness … and love.  It stirs our souls and pours joy into our hearts.

Just as Mount Rainier often appears to “float” on the horizon … suggesting an unreal presence, so the Lord can seem distant and unattached to our reality as well.  But just as Rainier actually exists, our God is also “Fact,” and intimately connected to us.  He is real, and really engaged in our lives.

On the rare non-overcast days in the Fall through Spring in Western Washington, the locals often state jubilantly, “The Mountain is out!”  Of course, “The Mountain” is always there, whether the weather allows us to see it or not.  And so it is with our God.  Even when we can’t lay our eyes upon Him, the Lord is still with us.  Then there are those times where God’s presence, providence and protection are obvious, and we exclaim, “The Lord is here!”

When my aunt was in Washington for my ordination, she nicknamed Mt. Rainier the “Silent Intruder.”  A person can be lost in thought driving or walking, just minding their own business, when suddenly Rainier pops into view and takes one’s breath away.  If we are looking through the eyes of faith, God does that often!  We recognize God’s appearances and activity repeatedly in our day-to-day lives.  He frequently leaves us in awe.  We certainly experience that when we focus our eyes on the cross.  Breathtaking indeed!

“This is what the LORD says— Israel’s King and Redeemer, the LORD Almighty: I am the first and I am the last; apart from me there is no God.  Who then is like me? … Do not tremble, do not be afraid. … Is there any God besides me?  No, there is no other Rock; I know not one”   (Isaiah 44:6-8).

Mount Rainier is undeniably majestic and magnificent.  But the mountain doesn’t even come close to the majesty and magnificence of the Lord, our Rock and Redeemer!

Incomparable and Unequaled

Incomparable and Unequaled

Is there anything else in our existence quite like the cosmos?  On a clear night away from the city lights, the view of the night sky is breathtaking.  Stars upon stars upon stars.  Too many to count and too spectacular to comprehend!  We are enthralled by the brilliance of the view.

We are also stunned by the immense distance between us and them.  Even with just our naked eyes, we easily discern the vast space in space.  But we don’t even begin to comprehend the width, breadth and depth of God’s cosmos. 

Astronomers believe that the diameter of the observable universe … the part we can see … is at least 93 billion light years in distance.

Astronomers also tell us that there are probably more than 10 billion galaxies in the observable view of the night sky.  And each of those 10 billion galaxies have on average about 100 billion stars in them.  That’s approximately 1 billion trillion stars!  (1 billion trillion stars!!!)

And that’s only in the observable universe!  There’s even more beyond what we can see with just our eyes.

Wow!  Doesn’t that rattle your brain a bit?  Doesn’t that fill you with wonder?  Doesn’t that stretch your comprehension beyond its limits?  How immense are the heavens!

Now consider this: the Bible describes God as “marking off the heavens with the breadth of his hand”  (Isaiah 40:12).  In other words, the Bible pictures God as using his hand to measure the entirety of the cosmos.  That puts things in perspective, doesn’t it?  That sheds some light on the magnificence, superiority, and immeasurable greatness of our God!

And that’s the point.  The star-filled view of the night sky illustrates the magnificence of our God.  The stars show God’s superiority over everything and anything else anywhere.  They show us God’s immensity.  They powerfully demonstrate how God is infinite.  Just as we can’t begin to comprehend the immensity of the cosmos, so we can’t begin to comprehend the infinite God

No wonder David was inspired to write the words of psalm 19.  “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.  Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge.  There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard.  Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world”  (Psalm 19:1-4).

In other words, no matter who a person is or where they happen to live, one thoughtful look at the night sky should convince them that there must be a God.  The stars are a night-by-night testimony to the glory, power, wisdom, and general magnificence of God.

The heavens don’t reveal who the real God is, but they make crystal clear that there is one.  Only through the Scriptures will anyone find that God … the real God, the only God, the magnificent God who made heaven and earth.

Which is why the Lord inspired Isaiah to write these words:    “To whom will you compare me?  Or who is my equal?” says the Holy One.  Lift your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these?  He who brings out the starry host one by one, and calls them each by name.  Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing”  (Isaiah 40:25-26).

We read these words and our awe increases.  Not only did the Lord create the heavens and all the trillions and trillions of stars in them, but through his “great power and mighty strength,” he preserves them.  And then there’s perhaps the most mind-blowing truth of all; the Lord knows every single star by name!

We struggle to remember where we left our phones or put our car keys.  Yet the Lord has a name for every one of the estimated 1 billion trillion stars that we can see.  And he has a name for all the billions of stars that we can’t see, as well!

Our God truly is incomparable and unequaled.  And here’s the best part of all: this magnificent God loves us magnificently!  How awesome is our God!

God’s Holy Sense of Humor?

God’s Holy Sense of Humor?

Platypus.  The name has to be among the strangest in the animal kingdom.  The animal itself, however, is even stranger than its name.

The platypus sports a bill like a duck, a tail like a beaver, and fur and feet like an otter.  The webbing on its feet is retractable for when it ambles around on land.  The males carry a venomous spur like a scorpion on their rear feet, and the females lay eggs like reptiles or birds.

When fully grown, a platypus is about 15 inches long, not including the 5-inch tail.  An adult weighs about 3 pounds.  They only populate parts of Australia.

Platypuses are graceful swimmers.  They paddle with their front webbed feet and steer with their hind feet and beaverlike tail.  The creatures have dense, dark-brown fur that helps them stay warm underwater.  Folds of skin cover their eyes and ears to prevent water from entering, and their nostrils close with a watertight seal.  They can remain submerged for several minutes.

The skin of their “duckbill” holds thousands of receptors that help the platypus navigate underwater and detect the electric fields generated by all living things.  They sweep along the bottom of rivers, streams, ponds and lakes using electrolocation to find hiding shellfish, insects, larvae or worms which they then carry to the surface to eat.  Electrolocation is a rare trait among animals in general, but especially so among mammals. 

The platypus has baffled scientists from the beginning.  When the first platypus specimen was sent back to England in 1799, zoologist George Shaw’s initial conclusion was that the animal was a hoax.  He actually attempted to pry the bill off the body in his search for the threads that held it in place. 

The platypus is such an aberration that it took taxonomists more than eighty years to classify it.  Though finally designated a mammal, its skeletal construction resembles a reptile, with pectoral girdles and splayed legs.  Laying eggs is certainly reptilian, and is certainly un-mammal-like.  Being an egg-layer lands platypuses in the extremely rare mammal class called monotremes, a characteristic they share only with spiny anteaters.  The additional matter of being venomous is yet another incredibly rare attribute for mammals.  (One can begin to see the challenges to classifying the platypus!)

In 2008, scientists were able to decipher the entire DNA of the duck-billed platypus and discovered that it shares genes with reptiles, birds, and mammals.  Not surprising based on its appearance and characteristics, but extremely upsetting to evolutionists.

Long before the troubling (to evolutionists) DNA information, biologists struggled with the complexities of the platypus.  In 1992, Australian biologist, Michael Archer wrote, “Indeed, evolutionary scientists are baffled about the ancestry of the platypus.”  A former Director of the National Human Genome Research Institute, (Francis S. Collins), admits: “At first glance, the platypus appears as if it was the result of an evolutionary accident.”

Studying the platypus, Australian zoologist Dr. Susan Lee eventually developed a different hypothesis.  She postulates that a tear in the space-time continuum allowed extraterrestrial life to enter Australia, introducing a deluge of freak animals into the “Land Down Under.”  (She’s serious!)  The platypus was the animal that moved her to settle on such an unusual conclusion.  She states that the platypus “makes no sense from a biological standpoint.  It looks like a beaver and a duck had [an offspring].  It’s far too [ugly] to be a product of evolution.”  And if it couldn’t have evolved, then how else could it come to be except by extreme circumstances?

Interestingly, according to what he wrote while visiting Australia, it seems that Charles Darwin actually began to consider his evolutionary hypothesis while examining the corpse of a platypus.  The animal, along with some of the other exotic creatures he encountered in that country, sparked doubt in his mind that one Creator made all of the animal kingdom with its multiple and strange variations.

Of course, most evolutionists discount God altogether.  Charles Darwin, still a Christian when he examined the confounding platypus, clearly underestimated the capacity of the Lord.  Which is truly sad.

Elihu in the book of Job says this:  “God does great things by his power.  Is there any teacher like him?  Who can tell him which way he should go?  Who can say to him, ‘You did wrong’?  Remember that you should praise his work”  (Job 36:22-24 – God’s Word).  That’s wise advice. 

So what does the muddled-up, complex, and unique … but fascinating, wonderful, and delightful platypus show us about the Lord?  First of all, that the Creator is indeed creative!  He has unlimited imagination.  Secondly, he isn’t bound by the preconceptions of humans; God makes his own rules.  Additionally, he is exceedingly wise, and every creature created by the Creator is “good”  (Genesis 1:25).  And finally, that God has a holy sense of humor. 

I doubt that the Lord laughs at the futile and foolish attempts of humans to sound wise; it’s too tragic.  But he could.  I suspect that he at least smiles as biologists try to make sense of the platypus.

Consider the Birds

Consider the Birds

The birds at our place have it pretty cushy.  We have multiple bird houses hanging from the eaves on the north side of our house.  There are also three different styles of bird feeders – all regularly stocked – in the back yard.  (Four if one counts the hummingbird feeder.)  A birdbath is another provided amenity.  In addition, there is an abundance of trees and bushes for the birds to perch in.  Plus, we don’t own a cat, and we do own a large dog who effectively keeps cats away, but who ignores the birds.

Consequently, we have a fair share of birds flitting about our place.  We regularly notice Turtle Doves (not Mourning Doves, but Turtle Doves!) and various types of Blue Jays pecking up seed on the ground.  Towhees, Northern Flickers and Varied Thrushes are sometimes seen clinging to the feeders.  Grosbeaks make appearances now and then, as do Finches and even occasionally Goldfinches.  Chickadees and Juncos are regulars.  But the most common diners at our seed dinners, by far, are the sparrows.  They are also the boarders at our bird hotels, so it’s natural that they would be the most frequently sighted. 

But then, that’s what I expected when I started catering to the birds.  After all, sparrows are everywhere, right?  As a matter of fact, there are at least 35 types of sparrow species in North America, with 15 of the species living in most areas of the nation.  There are sparrows everywhere.  They are the epitome of commonplace. 

Actually the sparrow population is declining somewhat.  No one is quite sure why, although there are many theories.  Nevertheless, house sparrows are still probably the most abundant bird in the United States, with a population estimated as high as 400 million.  (Which averages out to 1.2 sparrows for every person in the nation.)  Declining or not, that’s a lot of birds! 

Realize that sparrows are found around the world.  I couldn’t find an estimate on what that number might be.  But if 400 million live in the United States, well … yeah, it must be a HUGE number. 

With that in mind, consider Jesus’ words:  “Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies?  Yet not one of them is forgotten by God.  Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered.  Don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows”  (Luke 12:6-7).

Not one of the 400 million sparrows in our nation are forgotten by God.  Nor does one fall to the ground unless the Lord allows it (Matthew 10:29).  The same is true for the sparrows around the world, however many billions of birds that might be.  Now that’s absolutely astounding!

Jesus adds an interesting side-note as well.  God even knows the number of hairs on our heads!  (For the average person, that would fall somewhere between 100 – 150 thousand strands!)  Now consider that our nation’s population is projected to be 333,546,000 in the 2020 consensus.  That’s a whole lot of follicles for the Lord to keep track of, just in the United States alone!  But still, God’s got the exact count.

Let’s take this concept even further.  A while back two scientists decided to estimate the total number of birds on the planet.  The number they came up with was 200 to 400 billion individual birds.  Compared to almost 8 billion people on earth, this amounts to about 25 to 50 birds per person.  And not one of those birds is forgotten or falls without God’s direction either. 

Same goes for all the animals.  And all the insects.  And all the fish.  And all the people!

The point of sharing all these mind-boggling numbers is not to convince you that God’s got too much to handle.  Quite the opposite!  Rather the point is to demonstrate how magnificent our God is!  This keeping track of the sparrows … and everything else … is routine stuff for the Lord. 

Jesus makes the same point.  “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear.  Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes?  Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.  Are you not much more valuable than they?”  (Matthew 6:25-26).

One of my most dearly loved things is the sound of birds chirping in the quiet of the morning.  Whether home or away, a person can be confident that if he or she is outside, or can hear the outside, then they will hear the birds greet the morning with song. 

The sparrows are constantly chirping.  They are always fed and housed by the Lord, and their very existence is sustained by Him.  They have nothing to worry about, so they don’t.  Instead, the sparrows praise the Lord, their Provider, incessantly. 

Consider the birds.  There is much we can learn from them!