Racing into the new year

"When I view and consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have ordained and established, What is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of earthborn man that You care for him?" Psalms 8:3,4 amp.

Dec. 31 -- last day of our trip around the sun and time to start another lap. The Earth's clock, like a Timex, kept ticking as we Earthlings ran another stretch in the races of our lives.

We've just celebrated Christmas -- the creator's coming to the planet. Two worlds collided -- heaven with earth, spiritual with physical, invisible with visible, supernatural God with material man. Into this world Deity came knocking, knocked about for 33 years, knocked off some demons and disease, took Satan's knock-down punch, came back from what looked like a complete KO, knocked off his earth's work and headed home to heaven, all so we could survive Earth's hard knocks and someday knock on heaven's door and be welcomed.

"What is man that You are mindful of him," David asked. I've read that our galaxy the Milky Way contains about 400 billion stars (suns), each with its family of planets. There's an estimated 100 billion galaxies like the Milky Way, so that would be 40,000 million million million (40 sextillion) star/suns in space. That yields 1,480,000 million million million planets and satellites out there, and some folks think maybe 10 percent of them are habitable.

So why in the world did God come here? I mean, it's not like he doesn't have enough to keep him busy. The Bible calls us children of God (John 1:12), a little lower than angels (Psalms 8:5), heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ (Romans 8:17). We're his children and he loves us. Besides, we had a sin problem, and he fixed it.

That's reassuring. As I get ready to go with the Earth to make another marathon lap, I figure I can "run with endurance the race that is set before us" (Hebrews12:1). Besides, "If God is for us, who can be against us?" (Romans 8:31)

I'm glad scientists keep discovering more about creation. It gives us all a better opportunity to see just how vast and detail-oriented God is. He takes care of his big, old universe, and he takes care of little, not-too-old me. He knows and takes care of the past, present and future all at one time, and me all the time.

For those who say they don't believe God made the universe and us or that he takes care of us, I say, "You're too late to change my mind." I've seen a blind eye open when someone prayed. I watched a friend go from having lupus, being unable to walk and forced to rely on 18 powerful pain pills every day to being completely healed (not even one Tylenol the next day) in the blink of an eye when she was prayed for (yes, it's medically documented). I've seen God's power to heal. I've seen miracles in others and experienced them in my own life.

So as the world turns, my life doesn't have to be a soap opera. I serve a God who likes to be the guiding light. I can stand my ground for another year because I'm "safe and secure from all alarms; leaning on the everlasting arms" (Elisha A. Hoffman). God's my pilot if I'll just stay in my passenger's seat and let him manage the controls. He'll steer my world this year as I make my New Year's vow to spend another year with him. So I'm buckled up and good to go another 584 million miles. How about you?

June Seabaugh is a member of Christ Church of the Heartland in Cape Girardeau.