ABOUT
THE AUTHOR
I am a married, 35-year-old Christian mother of two sons. I live in North Carolina, where I have lived all my life. I am a substitute school teacher. I have been writing for as long as I can remember. My hobbies are working in my flower gardens, painting mintures, and reading. I love being outside and my two sons are the center of my life. [February 2001]
The other evening I was outside and I was looking up at the night sky. I had just got home from a meeting and in the sky I noticed how particularly bright the stars were. I thought about how far away those stars really are from us.. while appreciating the beauty... I noticed the more I stood there and looked the more I saw. I was awestruck at what God has done for us...... the beauty ..... Ever since I was a little girl I have looked at the night sky with wonder and growing up in a dysfunctional home... it was the one thing that gave me peace and helped me to feel closer to God. I have read many things about the skies and universe.. a fascination that has never left me. Do you ever take the time to go out and look up at the sky and wonder? I know you have all heard of the Hubble telescope and have seen pictures of distant galaxies... but have you ever really took the time to think about what it all means? They now have this thing called NICMOS .. it is Hubble's near infra-red camera and multi-object spectrometer. What this means is basically with this thing we are now seeing farther into space than ever before. The light from these distant galaxies (and they are too numerous to even count)....that we are seeing now is actually about as old as life on this planet. We are looking back into time the farther out we look. The term "Light years" refers to how far light travels in one year. Light travels at a speed of 186,282 miles per second. To give you an idea you might can relate to... suppose the sun blew up and was no longer there.. we would not know this for approximately 8 minutes. When I look out at the sky... I do not doubt for a second that there is a God ... that everything... every moment in time.. was all part of His divine plan. There is so much that we do not know. Then I look at this world ... the things we have created around us... the violence... hated and evil ... and my heart fills with sadness for this earth. When I look to the Heavens I know in my soul God created it out of Love... and that is what this world needs more of. Everywhere you look, newscasts, papers.. tv shows...all report violence and fear... the world is full of it. According to the FBI, on average a person is murdered every 22 minutes, a robbery is committed every 26 seconds and someone is raped every four minutes. In a 1995 Council on Crime in America report the figures for the U.S. crime rate are 5.6 times higher than the offical FBI figures. By the time a child now, is 15 years old, he or she will have witnessed the violent destruction of more than 35,000 human beings on television, as well as 200,000 other brutal acts. These are staggering statistics. But, even in this violence filled world, we don't have to live in fear. We can live in faith. Jesus told us in John 14:27 "Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." He told us these times would come upon us. A Newsweek Magazine poll reported findings (of the 758 American children between the ages of 10 and 17 that were polled) painted a portrait of a generation living in fear. Fear we could not have imagined. My heart cries for the children. This generation needs faith and love. We need to show these children the stars and teach them about the One who made them. We need to bring Light into their lives. Sir Rabindranath Jagore said that Faith is the bird that feels the light when the dawn is still dark. These are dark times that we are living in... We crucify ourselves between two thieves - I have heard it said- Regret for yesterday and Fear of tomorrow. We need to start living in today's present, love one another as Jesus commanded us and bring His Light into this world. We have choices. We must choose to banish the darkness and let Faith rule. We need to turn back to God. The Apostle Paul tells us that we do have a choice and it is okay to be angry, BUT, "Be angry, and yet do not sin". (Eph. 4:26). And he also cautioned us not to let the sun go down on your anger. We need to stop blaming and start trusting. Once we give God the control.. He will start to heal us. The way people think .. our thoughts and intentions.. are deflected onto others. Like begets like. I agree with what William A. Clough said, "When we stop looking at whatever troubles us, and turn in faith to God, the Source of Good, the difficulty disappears and a new condition takes its place." Others cannot force you to feel anything. You do have a choice. Faith is a noun that refers to the act of believing. When we are able to find faith.. our lives bring in more light and we stop blaming.. we stop the anger and hatred and find forgiveness and Love.. then we are able to heal. Rita Mae Brown once said, I finally figured out the only reason to be alive is to enjoy it. I too, believe this. And when I go outside and look at the stars, I know in my soul that is what God meant for us as well. If faith is defined as substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen... then I have faith. I challenge you with this.. to go outside tonight and look up at the stars... and think about your own faith and pray to God that this world will find it again. You can choose the light or you can choose the darkness. I choose light.. and with this... I leave you to choose.
I hope you all have a great week... and with Love Unconditional... I hope to see the stars with you tonight.
READER'S REVIEWS (2) DISCLAIMER: STORYMANIA DOES NOT PROVIDE AND IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR REVIEWS. ALL REVIEWS ARE PROVIDED BY NON-ASSOCIATED VISITORS, REGARDLESS OF THE WAY THEY CALL THEMSELVES.
"I agree with your sentiments exactly, how can people look at Gods creation and its beauty and still not believe?" -- Rikki Duncan, Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom.
"Dear Mary,ever since I accepted Jesus as my lord and saviour good things have happened to me.And when the bad things in life happen I feel as though I have a friend who I can depend on to guide me through those tough times.But I have to admit when I see all the violence in the world and I see the terrorism that takes place sometimes I have doubts about my faith.But then I go to church and I ask Jesus to help me be a strong believer and then I look at the stars in the sky and realize that there is also a lot of beauty in this world that the Lord is responsible for.I'll admit that there were times when I would blame God for my misfortunes and I would think that he is out to get me.But when I accepted him into my heart I put my life into his hands and he has led me on a path to happiness that I could only thank him for.God bless you and I hope to read more of your spiritual writings." -- David Daniels.
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