It's Good to Give Thanks

Lydia Sings "It's Good to Give Thanks"

Lydia sang this song with her pre-school classmates to start Zion Lutheran's Saturday evening service tonight. Five years ago at basically the same time Lisa and I were eating mostaccioli at Sarah and Matt's house, watched Iron Man and drove the whole way home talking about how the baby inside was going crazy and flipping all around. We thought we might be headed to the hospital that night. Lisa had contractions basically all night and the next day we finally made our way to the hospital (via a trip to Sam's and then the doctor's office).

It is good to give thanks.
I am thankful to God for this wonderful little girl who is growing up so quickly...

Photos of Our Baby Boy

He isn't due to arrive until March of next year, but here are the photos from yesterday's ultrasound. The doctor's said everything looks perfect, and he is measuring about 5 days larger than average.

It's truly amazing the level of detail you can now see in the images. We looked at both legs, arms, hands and feet. We were able to count his fingers, see both nostrils and checked the compartments of his heart. We also verified that he is receiving good blood flow from the umbilical cord and that his stomach, kidneys and lungs are all exactly as they should be. Absolutely amazing.

Click on any of the images for a larger view. 

Our Baby's footprint is 3.74cm long.

This profile view shows us his nose, mouth, hand and knee.

In this profile view, he had pulled his legs over his head and was holding onto them with his hands.

In this 3D image, our boy is laying on his left side, with both his hands under his head. (I sleep this way too.)

Hears a 3D view of our little boys face.

10,000 Reasons - TuesdayTunes

I've loved this song since I first heard last fall, but I have forgotten to post it.
My father reminded me of it yesterday.

Lyrics for "10,000 Reasons (Bless The Lord) " by Matt Redman

[Chorus]
Bless the Lord, O my soul
O my soul
Worship His holy name
Sing like never before
O my soul
I'll worship Your holy name

The sun comes up, it's a new day dawning
It's time to sing Your song again
Whatever may pass, and whatever lies before me
Let me be singing when the evening comes

[Chorus]
Bless the Lord, O my soul
O my soul
Worship His holy name
Sing like never before
O my soul
I'll worship Your holy name

You're rich in love, and You're slow to anger
Your name is great, and Your heart is kind
For all Your goodness I will keep on singing
Ten thousand reasons for my heart to find

[Chorus]
Bless the Lord, O my soul
O my soul
Worship His holy name
Sing like never before
O my soul
I'll worship Your holy name

And on that day when my strength is failing
The end draws near and my time has come
Still my soul will sing Your praise unending
Ten thousand years and then forevermore

[Chorus x2]
Bless the Lord, O my soul
O my soul
Worship His holy name
Sing like never before
O my soul
I'll worship Your holy name

Jesus, I'll worship Your holy name
Lord, I'll worship Your holy name

Sing like never before
O my soul
I'll worship Your holy name
Jesus, I'll worship Your holy name
I'll worship Your holy name

(HT: Dad)

The Cosmological Theory Questioned

Here's an example of when science does not discover what it expects to discover and scrambles:

Scientists cannot find many of the galazies that should exist around the Milky Way galaxy.

According to cosmological theory, says MIT astrophysicist Simona Vegetti, "there should be thousands of dwarf galaxies in the Local Group." That's because the earliest days of the cosmos were not a tidy time, and after the big galaxies came into being a lot of debris ought to have been left behind — "debris," in this case, meaning little galaxies, made partly of what's known as cold dark matter. The fact that we don't see the galaxies, she says, is due to one of three things: Either they're simply too faint to detect, or there's something unusual about the local cosmic neighborhood that would explain why it departs from the larger rule. Or — and this is the troubling alternative — maybe the theory itself, which has been generally accepted for the past 30 years or so, is fundamentally wrong in some way. 

So what does this mean?
The cosmological theory may be fundamentally wrong - as in, incorrect.  

The presented alternatives as to why these galaxies are missing are as follows, with my response:
1. These galaxies are just to faint to detect.  It is hard to believe that some of our closest neighbors would be invisible to the technology that allows us to peer across billions of light years to incredibly distant galaxies.
2. Our galaxy doesn't follow the cosmological rules for some reason. It seems difficult to accept that there may be some mysterious reason why our galaxy might not have behaved as every other galaxy is expected to during its creation.
3. The theory is fundamentally wrong in some way. I think this means that scientists are discovering that they cannot prove one of the fundamental things that should exist if the Big Bang did indeed form our galaxy. They aren't willing to state that they believe the theory is incorrect at this point, just that it may be flawed.

Here are a few unanswered questions that I have after reading this brief article:
1. Have the expected "debris" been seen in other galaxy neighborhoods? If not, then why is this theory even proposed? Does the theory itself exist strictly on the basis that the Big Bang would have had to result in such "debris" existing?

2. If "debris" has been documented elsewhere, were those galaxy neighborhoods larger or smaller in size when compared to the Milky Way? If the answer is yes and the neighborhood is larger than the Milky Way galaxy, then it leads me to alternative #2 above, which naturally points us to alternative #3. If the answer is yes and the neighborhood is smaller, then I fail tun understand why we cannot find our own "debris" and dismiss alternative #1 to land at #3, after a brief time at alternative #2. If the answer is no, then it leads me directly to alternative #3.

From my own personal Christian perspective, I believe that this leads me to the alternative not mentioned, which is that God made it all and placed it all exactly where He wanted it to be. Perhaps the reason they cannot find the "debris", which resulted from quickly moving masses colliding with one another to form galaxies over time, is because it didn't happen that way. Perhaps these galaxies were created in space as they are by a God who wanted to display His magnificence and splendor on a canvas that is wider than mankind ever imagined was even in existence.

"Thus the heavens and the earth were finished..." - Genesis 2:1

"When I look at 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, and the son of man that you care for him?" - Psalm 8:3-4

God's Praise is Unstoppable

"Sometime praise is impossible to contain. It is a violently full river for which there is no dam high enough or wide enough to contain it. He will be on the tip of our tongue. He will spill out."
- David Crowder (Praise Habit, p53)