Hubble deep-space

http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=hubble+images&qpvt=hubble+images&mid=B66BD2618C9ED0E8F8F9B66BD2618C9ED0E8F8F9&FORM=LKVR10#

When I was a kid I fell in love with astronomy.  I had no idea what a light-year was but when I found out--for the record it's the distance that light, which travels at 186,000 miles a second, moves in a year, and that the nearest star, other than the sun, is 4 light-years away, I became infatuated.  I became further awe-struck when I learned that our galaxy alone is made up of millions of stars, and that there are millions of galaxies. . .As a Christian who believes that God the Creator has created all things I am completely blown away.  This is my God, our God, who cares deeply for me, for all of us.  All-powerful, all-knowing and all-loving.

Picking up the pieces, or, struggling with our faith

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/frank-schaeffer/how-do-you-pick-up-the-pi_b_816781.html

This is a very good article about faith.  I read it and I thought about that scene in "Fiddler on the Roof" in which Tevye is asking his God why he has made so many poor people.  Why does his life have to be so hard?  Why this?  Why that?  Why, why, why?  This movie is about the struggles of the Jews in Czarist Russia about a  hundred years ago.  They were trying to hold on to their traditions, to look after their families, as they have done for thousands of years.  And it isn't easy.  They are also being persecuted by the soldiers who are under orders to evict them from their villages.

In Genesis 32: 22-32 Jacob apparently wrestles with God.  This is an important passage because it says, symbolically that it isn't an easy task for some to accept God in our lives.   We want to be in control of our own lives.   We think we don't need God to help, to guide or to bless us.

I'm a Christian and I can identify in small measure to the Jews.  Sometimes I wonder if there really is a loving God or even if there's a God at all.  I struggle too.  Even as I write this I wonder if I am doing the right thing.  I wonder sometimes if I am following the path that I should be following.  I forget to pray, or I decide that something else is more important in my life than my relationship with God.