He Made It All

"This is what the LORD says, he who made the earth, the LORD who formed it and established it—the LORD is his name: 'Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know." Jeremiah 33:2-3

Well, we're back from our much-needed, and much-enjoyed vacation. To be honest, I'm simply not ready to get back to normal. That means I need to get a lot done, and I need to focus on events ahead- like the return of school! I'm having such a wonderful summer with my babies... I hate the thought of sending Abigail off to school again every day, and even worse- Zander is going to preschool this fall where he'll grow up on me. I hate that.

Anyway. This verse today is absolutely perfect for describing this past week. One of the best parts of the week was the night. Every night we had moon-less, clear skies, and once it finally got dark, we could look up in the sky and see more stars than you could ever see in a populated area. You could actually see all the constellations, and the Milky Way itself was thick with stars and clearly visible. It was amazing to look up at this sky and see the literal millions of stars and know that God created each and every one. Each and every one. And he put them into its exact place. Think about painting dots with a paintbrush and think about how long it could take to make 1 million dots. And then God kept going and made more and more! And the result is this amazing star-lit night sky.

I had the same amazing thoughts every day standing by the lagoon casting out my fishing pole. Sometimes I would catch fish, sometimes I wouldn't. But when I wasn't reeling something in I was busy watching turtles play in the water. Once there was a big snapping turtle getting close to my line, but more than once some small painter turtles thought they'd play tag with my bobber. They were just fun to watch them swim around like they had not a care in the world except figuring out what that neon yellow thing was floating in the water. Then you'd hear some running in the brush behind you followed by a splash, and you catch a glimpse of an otter making it's way through the water. He never came out in the open enough to see him playing, but every time we heard or saw another animal I thought about how God created each and every creature and gave it a purpose. We're so used to seeing animals in zoos and in cages that to see them in the wild actually doing what they're supposed to be doing is simply awe-inspiring. As we heard the wolves howling in the distance I thought about how wonderful it was that the wolf populations were doing so much better and I thanked God for creating such beautiful creatures- even though I wasn't seeing them.

I think that sometimes we simply forget that God made it all. There was one day that Abigail was swimming with Grandma and Zander and I were on the shore watching. Storm clouds were coming up in the distance, which meant that swimming was going to be cut short. Grandma would look at the clouds and tell them to shoo- "go away clouds, we don't want rain". My beautiful Zander then scolded Grandma for telling the clouds to go away "But God put those rain clouds there Grandma!" And that he did. We may never know the purpose for something that God created. I mean, mosquitoes? Come on already, surely we could do without those! But we can thank God for his wonderful creations and look at each creation with new eyes. We can look at the detail that went into creating twelve different kinds of woodpeckers who all live in the same forest. If God can create such wonders here on earth, how much more is it going to be in Heaven? Someday we'll find out, and in the meantime, I want to spend my time here on earth enjoying the earth and all of God's creations. I thank Him for all He has done and will continue to do- and may He keep my eyes open and focused where they need to be focused.