By the Way: Summer a great time to enjoy the handiwork of our God

By Medicine Hat News on August 19, 2017.

Here we are in the “dog days” of summer. The dog days of summer are the hot, dry, lazy days of summer or as the old song put it “the hazy, lazy days of summer.” The name is derived though from an astronomical phenomenon, the rising of Sirius, the Dog Star, above the horizon.

There are other astronomical phenomena going on as well. We just passed the peak of the Perseid meteor shower caused as the earth passes through the tail of comet Swift-Tuttle. And of course there is the coming (on Monday) of the solar eclipse which will be at 83 per cent in Medicine Hat.

There was a time when events such as these would have caused panic. Today, due to our more scientific understanding of things, they mostly cause wonder.

I can’t help but think of the wondrous God who stands behind these events. God in his address to Job said, “Can you bind the beautiful Pleiades? Can you loose the cords of Orion? Can you bring forth the constellations in their seasons or lead out the Bear with its cubs? Do you know the laws of the heavens? Can you set up God’s dominion over the earth?” (Job 38:31-33) We humans can gain understanding about the workings of the universe but we cannot cause the rising of Sirius or the daily rising and setting of the sun. Job’s response is mine as well: “I know that you can do all things; no plan of yours can be thwarted. You asked, ‘Who is this that obscures my counsel without knowledge? Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know.'” (Job 42:1-3)

Summer is a time to enjoy the great outdoors. It is also a time to appreciate the handiwork of our God who put the stars in their place yet also intimately knows and cares about us.

Go to the mountains and the hills, to the lakes or the prairies, and give thanks to the Lord God who made them all.