In my weekly Works & Wonders column, I combine a brief devotional with other interesting and uplifting bits and pieces I gleaned throughout the week. I hope you enjoy this week’s collection! It includes:
- A Full Knowledge of the Facts
- Flying a Drone into Niagara Falls
- Ocean Photographer of the Year
- 10,000 American Cities
- A 162-Year-Old Bottle of Guinness
- The Sun at High Resolution
1.
A Full Knowledge of the Facts
Though we may like to consider ourselves capable multitaskers, the fact is we can really only do one thing and think about one thing at any given moment—at least if we wish to do things well and to think with clarity and insight. If we wish to meditate on God and his Word, we must force ourselves to stop thinking about our tasks, problems, and circumstances (which will be your challenge and mine as we worship the Lord today). If we wish to set facts within our memory, we must get away from the hustle and bustle of life so we can focus, concentrate, and memorize. But God is not limited in this way. His thoughts do not flit about and are not constrained to focus on only one thing at any one moment. The perfection of his knowledge is not just in its extent but also in its ability. He does not merely know all things, but also knows and recalls all things at every moment. Therefore, he never acts on anything less than a full knowledge of all the facts, for they are all before him at all times.
2.
Flying a Drone into Niagara Falls
GoPro decided to show off the capabilities of its new camera by having someone fly it all around Niagara Falls. The footage is incredible. (And while Niagara Falls is the hometown favorite, being just a short distance from here, I’d love to see a video like this at Victoria Falls, which I find even more stunning.)
3.
Ocean Photographer of the Year
Oceanographic Magazine recently announced its final selections in this year’s Ocean Photographer of the Year competition. They feature the best coastal, drone, and underwater photographs you have seen all year. The Atlantic has the highlights, and I’m certain some of them will take your breath away.
You can see the full gallery at Oceanographic Magazine.
4.
How 10,000 American Cities Got Their Names
This is from the Wall Street Journal: “As the nation celebrates its 250th anniversary, many Americans are curious about their hometown history. Some answers can be found in a federal report more than a century old, when the U.S. government cataloged its towns and cities and described the origins of some 10,000 names.” WSJ dropped all of this data into an interactive map that allows you to learn how all those cities got their names. I really enjoyed it.
5.
A 162-Year-Old Bottle of Guinness
Did you know there is a Christian history to Guinness? If you haven’t yet read it, Stephen Mansfield’s The Search for God and Guinness is an interesting book that tells how Arthur Guinness developed a beverage that was much healthier than the contaminated water and also much less potent than the rum of the late 1700s. Anyway, a diver recently found some bottles of Guinness that went down with a shipwreck in 1864. They appear to still be sealed and drinkable. This story tells how he found them and what he intends to do with them.
6.
The Sun at High Resolution
The Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope, which is at the National Solar Observatory on Maui, Hawaii, has captured the highest-resolution image of the sun ever taken, and it’s quite amazing. You can read about it a little bit at Colossal, or you can skip straight to the video. It is probably worth doing the reading, though, so you can understand exactly what it is you’re seeing and why it is so significant.
