nasa

Love You On the Other Side

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I really enjoyed the NASA space feed yesterday on YouTube, approaching the moon, flyby observations and then they went behind the moon, communication blackout, with reconnecting after 40 minutes. It was a listening experience, because the fine detailed images won’t be released to us for a while. I listened and was able to pause the feed to screenshot the astronaut showing us the quick photo on his phone.  Wow, I can’t even imagine how glorious it must have been to look out the window. 

“God Speed” the command center woman spoke as they were about to go behind the moon. And the astronaut quoted Christ as teaching the greatest important commandment is to LOVE GOD, and second is also great: LOVE EACH OTHER. 

GODSPEED TO THAT MESSAGE GETTING THROUGH. 

Then, they each said, “See you on the other side.”

The conversational encouragement, which the astronaut and ground folks shared, and engaged my ear, spoke that essentially as AMAZING as the moon is, the heavens, the travel etc, it’s the LOVE in existence and the people of earth’s shared LOVE which is felt and acknowledged as MORE – and transversing the distance. That they sensed LOVE as BIGGER. BIGGEST. No thing or activity replaces LOVE.

Love gives opportunities too. And one of the opportunities is to trust! Love gives us the opportunity to be okay when we say: “See you on the other side”, whether that is a short stretch of time, like forty minutes to the space mission behind the moon, or a long unknown time. I think when we kiss our loved ones goodbye, even in death, we must trust and know that we will see them on the other side, and we want them comforted to see us. 

And since the other side is where God ALSO is, as He is here, we must TRUST that we have LOVE and will LOVE on the other side. 

“LOVE YOU ON THE OTHER SIDE!!!” should be our new catchphrase. 

Let us all believe that no matter where we go, the LOVE of God is bigger, greater, more fulfilling than anything or from anyone.  Love is shareable and non-destructable even through death.

Let us trust God always and keep moving. Let us rest in the Lord and watch Him move. God moves more than the heavens, He moves us to love. 

Amen 

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Matthew 22:36-40 NKJV 

“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?”

Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”

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To quote a musical spaceman planted on earth: “I don’t know where I’m going from here, but I promise it won’t be boring.” David Bowie

Eclipse-mode, Can We See Jesus’s Crown? 

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Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed; Save me, and I shall be saved, For You are my praise.

Something that bugs me healthwise is this bout of tennis elbow, bleh… not bad enough to stop my activities but not good. It’s minor painful sometimes, but annoying mostly. But I shouldn’t complain if I don’t do anything about it. I’ll survive. There are much worse illnesses suffered all the time. Someone always has it worse.

It’s an opportunity moment that I’ve been thinking about “crowns”. The coronavirus (still rearing its ugly head) has a ‘crown’, the sun has a corona too, fire licks on the surface. And there’s a total eclipse coming in April, the NASA website says: “We can’t normally see the corona ­– the Sun’s outer atmosphere – because the Sun’s surface below it is so much brighter. But during a total solar eclipse, the corona becomes visible, offering unique opportunities to study it.”

Hmmm…. the crown visible… unique opportunity to study... hmmm… let us think about Jesus.

Maybe our pain and suffering feels like an eclipse, but it is an opportunity to praise.  Paul (in Romans) spoke about present day suffering,…. “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us”…. YES, in our suffering we can focus our vision to see the crown of Jesus, SAVING US, healing our souls now and our bodies one day. . . And if we aren’t in eclipse mode, the brightness of the sun (and all earthly bling of brightness) will overshadow (opposite of a shadow) our sight of the Crown. we need to see that Crown of Jesus.  Perhaps we forget in our earthly life of HOW glorious Jesus is as Lord and Savior. Perhaps in our dark clouds, our pain and suffering, it is an opportunity to block all the sun and just see the GLORY. GLORY that is coming and realized now. Perhaps we need clear cold nights in life to remind us to pull closer to the One Shining life in us. Life now and Life Forever.

Jeremiah was on a mission, a job, to share God’s Word with wayward Israelites. He needed God’s protection and promise. He ached for the people who didn’t hear. Jesus did too… ached tears and called out to save us from our sin. A crown of thorns chosen to bring the Crown of Glory to save us. We need to see this Glory and share this HOPE. And with hope is healing, awareness, perseverance. 

And we should never forget that God, in His Plan, will bring forth the day of the second coming of Christ, and we best be ready, with eclipse glasses and hearts afire, for we will see the Glory of the brightness of Jesus coming. That crown of Him as our King will ring and angels sing. 

We will be healed too…

Let us Persevere!

Keep an eye to the sky!

Amen 

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Jeremiah 17:14-17

Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed; Save me, and I shall be saved, For You are my praise.

Indeed they say to me, “Where is the word of the Lord? Let it come now!” As for me, I have not hurried away from being a shepherd who follows You, Nor have I desired the woeful day; You know what came out of my lips; It was right there before You. Do not be a terror to me; You are my hope in the day of doom.