Outside of Time...

I spent last night rewatching the "Star of Bethlehem" video on youtube...the presentation is stunning. I needed the reminder. We forget just how small we are...and how greatly beloved!

Most of you probably know that the stars and the planets, all revolving around the Sun, are a precision clock? It is an utterly reliable clock. The math is flawless. They move in a very predictable manner and count down the hours and days of our history.

All of which means that with modern software we can wind the clock back and see precisely where the constellations were at any given moment in time! Pretty impressive, huh? I am fascinated! It's incredible to watch it done...but, the most stunning take away from it is this...

God wrote the story of our redemption in the stars...

Really...terrible poetry of an indescribable love was written in the stars in the moments that it took place in time.

Some of that poetry was not something we were ever going to be able to see while it took place(but, with modern software we can see it "standing on the surface of the moon" and viewing it from there). The heart of the Lamb going dark at the moment of Christ’s death.

The heart of the Artist who is our Creator is so compelling...the realization that He wrote this story in the stars...that He felt the need to express His heart whether or not any human would ever witness it is such a testimony to what an Artist He is. I can relate to that need to express my heart(whether or not anyone ever sees it) because He made me in His image and that is a facet of His image that I bare in my life daily...

But, even more stunning to me...what this means when you sort it all out... is that God wrote that story in the stars before He created them...they were in the design before it all began...the story in the stars bookending 33 years out of the thousands of years in time thus far. Such precision...from before Creation He had already thought it out and planned out our rescue from evil...we “know” that by faith...we are told that...but, not only did He plan it...He placed those stars and set that clock in such a way that the story of Christ's Birth and His crucifixion were told as it was unfolding in history... He knew the day and the hour of each event from before the beginnings of the world. He knew we would make the choices we made in Eden and He had already made a way...already set a time. It is mind blowing! As I said...on some level we “know” these things...but, seeing it actually written out in the stars in those moments is such an incredible gift!

May I remember this when I face the pain and struggles of this life. All of this chapter(which is only the foreword of the greater story) in life is bound by time...and time was designed and set by a Creative Heart beyond all we can understand. He is not only *not* surprised by the events of my day...He knows their real significance stretched out over time into eternity. They really are "light and momentary troubles" in the scope of all that He has planned for me...for us.

To live really IS Christ...and to "die" will be incredible gain.

There IS an unshakable HOPE coming...

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Hebrews 6:19-20(MSG)

18-20 We who have run for our very lives to God have every reason to grab the promised hope with both hands and never let go. It’s an unbreakable spiritual lifeline, reaching past all appearances right to the very presence of God where Jesus, running on ahead of us, has taken up his permanent post as high priest for us, in the order of Melchizedek.

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There IS so much more to life than we see here...there is a finish line at the end of the race...our job right now is to breathe, eyes on Him, love His people... and live this life in that love... while we wait for all that is to come.