ODJ: God’s front porch

July 19, 2015 

READ: Psalm 19:1-4 

Praise him, sun and moon! Praise him, all you twinkling stars! (148:3).

NASA astronaut Gene Cernan is known as the last man to walk on the moon. In 1972 he was the commander of Apollo 17. He and his crew voyaged to the moon and spent 22 hours exploring the lunar surface. When asked what it’s like to stand on the moon, Cernan responded, “Looking back to see the earth in all of its fullness and beauty was like looking out from God’s front porch.”

The sight of planet Earth in a cold black sky so profoundly affected Cernan that years later he would reflect, “I’ve seen a small portion of God’s creation” and “If we could put everybody on that spot for five minutes, the earth would be a different place.”

It would be amazing to take in the view from “God’s front porch”. But we don’t have to go to the moon to know there’s a Creator behind the stars. Looking into the vast night sky as he stood on the surface of the planet Earth, the psalmist David found himself just as convinced. He wrote, “O LORD, our Lord, your majestic name fills the earth! . . . I look at the night sky and see the work of your fingers—the moon and the stars you set in place” (Psalm 8:1,3).

David wrote that the “skies” tell of their Creator in a way that would persuade anyone who listens: “Day after day they continue to speak; night after night they make him known. They speak without a sound or word; their voice is never heard. Yet their message has gone throughout the earth, and their words to all the world” (19:2-4).

—Jeff Olson

365-day-plan: John 6:41-71

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Read Deuteronomy 4:19 and consider what it means to worship the God who created our amazing universe. 
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What does your heart ‘hear’ when you gaze up into the skies? How does the design of the cosmos point to our Creator?