August 3, 2019 (Saturday)
If there ever was an understatement of the creative work of God, it is Genesis 1:16, “And he made the stars also.” A more descriptive word is found in Psalm 19:1, “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.”
This picture, taken by the Hubbel Telescope, illustrates what I just wrote.
“Galaxy NGC 4485 collided with its larger galactic neighbor NGC 4490 millions of years ago, leading to the creation of new stars seen in the right side of the image. The collision was more like an accidental hit and run between two neighboring galaxies, NGC 4485 and NGC 4490, that can be found in the Hunting Dogs constellation. Given the distance of these galaxies from us, the collision wasn’t captured in real time. It happened millions of years ago, but we’re just now seeing it” (NASA, quoted by CNN).
A new sky survey, using radio telescopes, reveals hundreds of thousands of galaxies. More than 200 astronomers in 18 countries created a radio sky survey. The radio signals of almost 300,000 sources have finally reached Earth, and most of them are previously unknown galaxies from the distant universe.
When I read about studies such as this, declaring that we have instruments which can now record events in the heavens that took place millions of years ago but the light of which is just now reaching earth, I think of Psalm 8:3-4a, “When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; What is man, that thou art mindful of him?”
Click here to listen to the song, “Can you Count the Stars?”
Today is the 49th anniversary of 1970 Hurricane Celia, which will never be completely forgotten, but, if mentioned, will always take second place to Hurricane Harvey. And neither storm, as powerful as they were, can compete with the 1919 storm, which killed hundreds of people (40 in Rockport). The year 2019 marks 100 years since the 1919 storm on September 14, 1919. Hurricane Harvey hit Rockport head-on, with much destruction of trees and property, on August 26, 2017. While much rebuilding has been completed, almost 2 years later much has yet to be done.