8:45pm
Too dark to get a photo from a man-made camera, but tonight about a mile south of Calypso's slip I watched two sailboats ... one working toward The Inner Harbor, the other tacking its way east toward the Atlantic ... for almost 15 minutes until it got dark.
Amazing to catch such a sight? Was it awesome and amazing?
No, what I saw was infinitely more than that.
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We tend to forget it wasn't so far in the past, really hardly more than a few generations ago, that wind was the engine driving hundred-ton cargo ships across the oceans to crisscross the seas; literally hauling civilization's heaviest loads from one end of the world to the other.
Yet still, wind-power wasn't good enough and couldn't keep up the pace: men wanted something Faster, more On Schedule and more Immediate.
Never mind that wind-power was a free gift that never needed maintenance, overhauling or refueling.
Men and the urgency of their demands prevailed: tall-masted sailing ships have all but vanished from the seas.
And hardly anyone seems to notice the wind any more.
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I couldn't help but stop to watch the two sailboats as the wind steered both vessels along their courses into the night.
Both captains at the tiller could see the stars hanging still and motionless overhead, but neither one of them could actually see the wind that filled and stretched their sails ... the invisible power that coaxed and effortlessly urged them along their way: I've got more wind than you've got sails.
Even though wind is invisible, its effects are not: the captains simply trusted the wind was there, to quietly guide their vessels ... and their lives ... to their destinations.
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Set against the grace of their motion and the rhythmic ease of their movement, the total silence and absolute lack of engine noise or any other man-made sound seemed other-worldly.
As if God's invisible hand merely brushing past the sails, or the force of his slightest whisper echoing down from Heaven through thousands and thousands of years, was again proved powerful enough to move and drive men and their ambitions over oceans, through stormy seas and tempests of every description to circle the globe ... and bring them back home safely again.
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As believers, sometimes we fall back upon disproportionate phrases like "God is huge," "God is amazing," "God is infinite" or "God is awesome and all-powerful."
Of course they're all true but even if we strung ten thousand cliches together the sum total doesn't come close to describing the sovereignty, the majesty, the righteousness and the power of the Creator.
Even if somehow we could convey and communicate our perception of the universe God created, our efforts would amount to nothing more significant or complete than describing a beach according to the first grain of sand we'd seen blowing past our toes on a windy afternoon.
God has just that kind of power, God is just that capable.
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In the beginning God created the universe.
I think given that kind of power, authority and imagination, it's unlikely God will ever get tired, give up, lose interest, turn his back, change his mind, get distracted, change priorities, go on vacation, ask for a vote or lose control of his creation. No matter what burden we feel like we're carrying onboard toward the night.
When I consider your heavens,
the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars,
which you have set in place,
what is man that you are mindful of him,
the son of man that you care for him?
- Psalm 8:2-4
Is not God in the heights of heaven?
And see how lofty are the highest stars!
And see how lofty are the highest stars!
- Job 22:12
So he said to me, "This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel: 'Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,' says the LORD Almighty.
- Zechariah 4:6
