It has been a minute since my last blog.
We have been working at a lodge in Arizona located just outside of the Grand Canyon National Park on the north rim. It was built in 1926-1927. There is plenty of character, various cabin formats, and no Wi-Fi (sorry to report) except for the main lodge; thus, we have been virtually excommunicado since early May. I highly recommend Kaibab Lodge for a relaxing time. They received 252" of snow this last winter season. It was a record and took about a month to dig into the lodge and repair the damage done by such a heavy load of snow.
Our work assignments are different. Mally is in reservations, manning the front desk, and helping with guest relations. I have been in the maintenance area; however, beginning June 15th, I will be a shuttle driver taking guests from the north to south rim. The trip is a little over four hours one way. Well, I just wanted to catch you up on the silence from our end. We recently purchased Starlink and it seems to be working well. This will be a short blog as I get back into the groove.
Our first week here, I was on a painting project when a guest began talking with me. His family is from Nebraska and they were here to help their disabled daughter with her bucket list. We talked a few minutes and then he left only to return with his youngest daughter who had quite a story of her own. They left again only to return with the older daughter. Then, the mother came out to join the conversation. It was really quite fun to just shoot the breeze with these guests, get to know a little about them, and in the end have a photo taken with the disabled daughter. Go figure. I did not know them, yet I was invited into their memories with a photo. It was kind of funny. I bent down on one knee to be beside her and after the photo, she, the one with the physical disabilities helped me up. She did it and we all laughed about it.
People come from all around the world to see this phenomenal canyon. Pictures help one to remember it, but the naked eye processes so much more of the beauty. We have found, for the most part, every guest has been excited to be here and quite pleasant to work with; although, there have been very few rare exceptions. As I write this blog, Mally said she assumed I was writing about the lodge and wondered how I was going to make some type of biblical connection at the same time.
We have a group of people staying here this week who are astronomers. They are quite knowledgeable about their hobby and have assembled an unbelievable array of telescopic equipment. They gave a talk in the main lodge followed with an invitation to go out into the darkness of the night where they had set up their equipment for anyone who wished to star gaze. One at a time, we climbed a couple of steps on a ladder to view stars undetectable by the naked eye. The number of stars in the sky are simply overwhelming when you locate yourself to a remote area unaffected by light pollution.
As we each took our turn, the astronomer gave little insights into what was being viewed. He remarked about the vastness of the stars and then about "black holes." He did not go into depth about them, but only remarked how powerful is the gravitational pull of black holes. It was all good until he said these black holes are all throughout the universe and galaxies and that they are what holds everything together. Now, I am depending on your bible knowledge, hoping you recall what the bible tells us regarding what holds everything together. You do not have to look far. At the risk of being redundant from a previous blog, I want to point you to a couple of verses which speak directly to this point. I use them again because I cannot improve on written Scripture.
First, in Genesis 1:1 we recall how Jesus (God, the Son) is the Creator of everything; "In the beginning, God (Jesus as the Agent used by God to create) created the heavens and the earth...." The point here is if something needs to be held together, there needs to be a "created something" in order for this to happen. God created everything out of nothing, ex nihilo. It seems unnecessary, but I will say it anyway, that God would not create something just to let it spin out of control only to vanish as if it were never here to begin with.
So, as I stood last night in the middle of darkness viewing only a small part of creation which included millions of stars, I could not help but feel cheated by his remark of what was keeping this together. Colossians 1:17 gives us the real reason for our continued existence as "creation." "...He (Jesus) is before all things and by Him "all" things are held together." One of my favorite bible commentaries, GotQuestions.org has some very interesting remarks regarding Jesus' power. "His power is a result of his divine radiance of the glory of God and His exact representation of God." The ESV (English Standard Version) says, “He upholds the universe by the word of His power,” while the NIV (New International Version) says, “Sustaining all things by His powerful word.”
Still others speak of “the power of His word” BLB (Blue Letter Bible). Regardless, what the author wants us to understand is that Jesus, as the very Word of God (John 1:1–3), is the "central life-force by which everything in creation finds its existence." Continuing, "Jesus is the very Word of God Himself "(John 1:1–3). With His word, Jesus speaks life and power into all things—nothing can exist or survive outside of His word and power. Imagine Jesus as the “pillars” that hold up the entire “house” of the universe. Take away the pillars, and the entire house would crumble beneath itself. Were Jesus not holding up all creation, then everything would crumble beneath itself.
So, the fact that Jesus upholds all things by the word of His power teaches us that everything in creation not only has its beginning in Jesus, but also its continued existence. For Jesus, as the eternal Word of God, has no beginning or end (John 1:1–2). Hebrews 1:3 tells us Jesus "is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power," (GotQuestions.org). I take great comfort as I place my trust in "The" Creator of all things, Jesus, who spoke everything into existence and Who keeps all things together with the same power of His word instead of placing my trust in a part of creation (black holes) having never existed until it was created.
When you go through life with the idea of what is keeping us from flying out into the vastness of space, recall what Scripture has to say about it. Even better, when you feel like your life is spinning out of control, remind yourself of the fact you are Jesus' creation, created for Himself and how much more important you are to Him than the rest of all creation. You are important to Jesus and as He holds all things together, He will hold your life together no matter what you are going through.
Wear Jesus Well!
Blessings,
Steve
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