I am deep into Francis Collins’s book, The Language of God. If you do not recall, I wrote about him last week and the negative response his view on evolution created at our youth conference. As I have been reading this book it has begged the questioned: when did the followers of the creator stop desiring to know about His creation? The people who care most about nature, scientists and environmentalists, are labeled anything from atheist to New Age before Christian (There are obvious exceptions, like Collins, but it resonates with majority opinion).

   In National Geographic I read about a curious arrangement of Jupiter and Venus. On November 30th they aligned with the moon to create a smiley face (see above) and on December 1st they created a frown (which was fun to see in real life). Of course in this quick paced society I imagine only a small percentage even noticed…

   On NPR this morning they mentioned that the average child is given 70 toys every year. This far and away more than even a generation ago and the discussion centered on the impact to children’s use of their imagination. But the thought of this excess drew me to another thought from Baptist Today which mentioned that 1 in 5 church attendees do not give ANYTHING in tithe (to either the church or other nonprofits)…

   As we fell the effects of the economic turmoil, with the threat of the BIG Three in bankruptcy and 1/2 million more losing their jobs in November we may ask where is God? Has He not heard our prayers? But He has not abandoned us. If anything He is calling us to look beyond ourselves. Beyond Christmas presents. Beyond North Face. Beyond I-phones. Beyond…  While we talk of restructuring the economy-so people will go back to spending-God is working to restructure the church-so His people will stop spending on themselves and look again to the heavens.