(If you click on the image above, you will go to the European Southern Observatory page, and you can enlarge the picture. WOW!)

It’s been a while, Gentle Reader, since I blogged on the heavens. I even tried adding music to the images, for blogging contemplation.

“The heavens are telling the glory of God.” When will we listen? Last year, I contrasted Honduras’ woes with a stellar image. That country’s trials continue. Since then, we have had the Haiti earthquake, Chili’s quake, terrible loss of life in China, the Deepwater Horizon disaster, Brazilian mudslides... And the murder of Christians in Iraq has picked up its pace. The war in Congo continues, fueled by conflict minerals. And on and on.

The Universe is so beautiful. It is also deadly, at times. In this glorious blue nebula, new stars are being born. The incubator of asters is also a secondary cause of whatever life may be born, wheeling around those stars, millions of years from now. And what is born, must die.

It is a good thing, I believe, to step back and let the glory of God be declared to us. For then, when we have had our fill, we can go back to our little moment in time. And help rebuild Haiti. And Chile. And bury the dead. So many to bury... And plug up that damn hole!

And bring Iraqi Christians to safety, until that country, so devastated by unbelievable hubris, can protect its own (when???). And stop paying vicious criminal gangs (euphemistically called “militias”) for their illegal occupation of the mines of Congo.

And ... And ...

And then we will need more contemplation. For as we gaze on stellar objects set at unimaginable distances, we are also staring into our souls. So beautiful. So deadly. There too is the glory of God, expressed as atonement (here is a fresh take), leading us to repentance. And that spurs us on.