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:
- Wonderful Wisdom
- He Made a Cross His Throne
- Ancient Underground Aqueducts
- The Perfect Photo
- Migration Dashboard
- Abide with Me (at a Royal Funeral)
1.
Wonderful Wisdom
God has displayed his wisdom in many ways, but the greatest of all is in redemption—in saving a people to himself. God had created humanity good and sinless, made in his image to praise and honor him. But humanity turned away, scorning God and preferring to be their own gods. God could have left us on our own. He would have been within his rights to give us justice without grace, wrath without mercy. But in love he wished to save us, and in his wisdom he knew how to ensure that sin would be punished and sinners saved. And so he sent his Son into this world to fulfill the law by living an unblemished life, and then to pay for sin by suffering an atoning death. But death could have no claim on one who had committed no sin, so he was gloriously raised from the dead. From the greatest evil came the greatest good; from the greatest fall came the greatest rise; from the greatest grief came the greatest happiness. And the origin of it all was the wonderful wisdom of God. Little wonder, then, that God’s people love to praise his name, as we will do today when we gather to worship him.
2.
He Made a Cross His Throne
Shane & Shane recently recorded and released a new song titled “He Made a Cross His Throne.” Here’s how it begins:
He made a cross his throne
Embracing agony
The Lord of life would choose to die
To prove his love for meHe made a cross his throne
Raised high for all to see
And from that throne his dying breath
Secured my victory
Give it a listen, as I think you’ll enjoy it.
3.
Ancient Underground Aqueducts
This is pretty neat. “Underneath the narrow streets, churches, and palaces of the Italian city of Siena lies a sprawling network of underground aqueducts that supplied water to the Tuscan city for centuries, enabling it to flourish despite a chronic lack of nearby rivers and streams. Extending for roughly 25 kilometers, the so-called Bottini constitute an ingenious hydraulic system that sustained the city from the Middle Ages until the early 20th century.” You can read about it and see photos at The Ancient Underground Aqueducts of Siena.
4.
The Perfect Photo
This is an interesting little project. Filmmaker Yasmin van Dorp visits some beautiful locations in Norway to capture the tension between enjoying the beauty of the scenery and capturing it on a tiny little iPhone screen. It’s an interesting and poignant study in the way we miss out on beauty through our fixation on capturing it to show others. Watch: The Spectacle.
5.
Migration Dashboard
This is the season when billions of birds begin to migrate from the northern parts of North America to their wintering grounds in the south. Cornell Lab’s BirdCast helps us understand both the numbers and the types of birds that are passing overhead. You can punch in your state or county and get a pretty good idea of what’s happening. While unfortunately, the map only covers the United States, I’m just a few miles from Erie County, New York, so that gives me a pretty good idea of what’s going on here. Here is a glimpse of the local dashboard a couple of days ago:
6.
Abide with Me
There are few hymns more moving and beautiful than “Abide with Me.” There are also few hymns more suitable for a funeral. Norway’s King Harald died recently and his funeral featured a stirring rendition of the song in English.
Also, if you’re ever in a situation where almost no one else is singing along, be this guy and just go for it.
