LIVING WATERS
For the proclamation of the Gospel and the edification of the Body of Christ
From Higher Up
In recent times, NASA has released to the world recent photographs of the Earth taken from space. Technological advances have made it possible to assemble a database of satellite images with more than 600,000 extraordinarily sharp photographs of the Earth's surface, and with the highest quality ever taken.
The entire planet has been scanned at a resolution of 15 meters per pixel, allowing any man-made structure or major geographical feature to be clearly seen. Some photos show details of the Earth smaller than six meters - about the size of a bus.
Some images are impressive to look at, especially those showing the globe as if floating in space. In deep blue, the oceans; the continents in shades of yellow, green and ochre; the polar ice caps covered with snow. Truly spectacular, beautiful. Its contemplation evokes Genesis 1:31: "And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good".
From the height to which human beings have been able to reach, the beauty of creation can still be perceived; however, those of us who live on Earth today see what has been the result of man's action on his environment.
But there is another vision from a much higher point of view -and paradoxically, deeper- that scrutinizes the third planet of the solar system and its inhabitants. It is the gaze of our God, from the highest place in the universe: his throne of glory.
It is certain that the Lord is pained to contemplate the present state of His creation, and most especially of man, whom He created to lord it over His work. His eyes search all things, even that which satellite images can never reveal: the heart of every human being.
While man will continue to refine his instruments to record the external appearance of the microcosm and macrocosm, his science will never be able to solve the mystery of the human soul, nor improve its pitiful condition by itself.
"He ruleth by his power forever; his eyes watch over the nations" (Ps. 66:7). Only in the eyes of the Lord does everything appear with absolute clarity. Nothing is hidden from his gaze. The Almighty God humbles himself to observe us from on high, with a permanent and unchanging expression of love.
"For he looked down from his sanctuary on high; the Lord looked down from the heavens to the earth, to hear the groaning of the prisoners, to release those sentenced to death" (Ps. 102:19-20). Indeed, he not only looks upon us. With ineffable tenderness, he makes us hear his voice, inviting us to reflect his loving gaze: "Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else" (Is. 45:22).