Friday, January 25, 2013

Look at the stars, Abraham

 A favorite song of mine was written by Phill Keaggy: Abraham

Look at the stars, Abraham
And believe I Am.
Can you count stars, Abraham
Or the grains of sand?
I see why the tide keeps rolling
I see why the tide keeps rolling in
And building up the Sand Tree.
You've loved your wife, Abraham
But there is no son.
Yet from your life, Abraham,
The Seed shall come.
I see why the tide keeps rolling
I see why the tide keeps rolling in
And building up the Sand Tree.
Give Me your son, Abraham,
And believe I can.
Supply the Lamb, Abraham,
For the sin of man.
I see why the tide keeps rolling
I see why the tide keeps rolling in
And building up the Sand Tree.

This comes from Genesis 15 where God was speaking with his chosen vessel, Abraham, used to start an entire race who would honor God:

Abram Promised a Son
    After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision, saying,
  “Do not fear, Abram, I am a shield to you;
    Your reward shall be very great.”

Abram said, “O Lord GOD, what will You give me, since I am childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” And Abram said, “Since You have given no offspring to me, one born in my house is my heir.” Then behold, the word of the LORD came to him (Abraham), saying, “This man will not be your heir; but one who will come forth from your own body, he shall be your heir.” And He took him outside and said, “Now look toward the heavens, and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” And He said to him, “So shall your descendants be.” Then he believed in the LORD; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness 

The stars have always been pointing to our heavenly Father. In face, all of creation knows that the stars are to be used as guidance, a pointer, for the way they should "walk"

Science recently found this example in the "lowly" dung beetle :

Dung beetles navigate using the Milky Way

Ever look up at the stars and wonder if some bug-eyed creature is doing the same? It turns out at least one does: the dung beetle uses the glow of the Milky Way to navigate. Once a beetle (Scarabaeus satyrus) has constructed its dung ball, it moves off in a straight line in order to escape from rival beetles as quickly as possible, lest they try and steal its carefully crafted ball. This behaviour doesn't sound complicated, but several years ago, Marie Dacke of Lund University in Sweden and colleagues showed that polarised light from the moon is important for dung beetles to keep to a straight line. Then the researchers were surprised to find the insects were able to stay on course even on a moonless night. "We thought there was something wrong in our set-up," Dacke says. The team allowed the beetles to crawl around the floor of a plain-walled cylindrical drum with an open top, meaning they could only use the night sky to orientate themselves. The researchers timed how long it took the beetles to reach the edge of the drum from the centre, and found that under a full moon, the insects took around 20 seconds on average; on a starry but moonless night, they took around 40 seconds. But when beetles had a cardboard cap placed on them to prevent them from seeing the sky, they needed over two minutes, suggesting the stars were playing a role. Planetarium clincher To test this, the team moved the experiment to a planetarium. By switching stars on and off, Dacke discovered that the glowing strip of the whole Milky Way was what guided the beetles' movement. "Before it was assumed insects could not use the stars because their eyes don't have the resolution to see them," she says. Navigating using the whole of the Milky Way does away with the need to see individual stars. Dacke says the results suggest moths, locusts and other insects might navigate by the Milky Way, too. Her team is now looking at whether the beetles prefer to navigate by the moon or the Milky Way when both are on view.

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