Convergence

The convergence seemed to cause a little bit of a stir over the past few days. I missed the full thing, but did get to zoom in and get a faint photo of Jupiter and Saturn.
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From what some are saying, it wasn't nearly as spectacular as they thought it would be, other however sharing pictures of a brilliant light in the sky.

It's been called the "Christmas Star", though I doubt that it was what the wise men followed. I certainly believe that God could've created His own star for His own Son's birth.

What I find to be amazing isn't so much the convergence itself, but the fact that even with my limited 150-600mm lens I was able to make out the rings of Saturn, which by the way is roughly the same distance from Jupiter, as Jupiter is from us, give or take 100 million miles!

More amazing still, is the fact that God would 'bother' to make something a billion miles away and many times larger than our own Earth. He is magnificent.

But it's Christmas and that's what I want to talk about briefly.

They say that the last time this convergence happened was about 800 years ago. I believe them, as God did give us the sun, moon and stars to keep time, right? So I believe these things are generally like clockwork, not that I'm an astronomer. 

"God placed them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, and to govern the day and the night, and to separate the light from the darkness; and God saw that it was good." Genesis 1:17-18

What else is amazing is that Isaiah wrote about the virgin birth of Jesus almost the same amount of time before His birth, as the last time we had this convergence, roughly some 700 years.

"Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel." Isaiah 7:14

In fact the coming of Christ was predicted, prophesied about, and foreshadowed all throughout the Old Testament.

But the reality is the plan of Salvation through Jesus Christ was not a reactionary response on God's part to the rebellion of sinful man. Acts 2:22-24

"Men of Israel, listen to these words: Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs which God performed through Him in your midst, just as you yourselves know- this Man, delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death. But God raised Him up again, putting an end to the agony of death, since it was impossible for Him to be held in its power." Acts 2:22-24

It was always the plan. God is all knowing, and He is sovereign.

So as we marvel at the wonders of creation, and we enjoy this time of year, if you've never bowed the knee to Christ, what a wonderful time to come to saving faith in Him.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas.

“Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. www.lockman.org”