Finding joy can be allusive. Worries, anxieties, and pressures from situations or bad news make joy especially fleeting. We have pressures like most people, and simple observing the heavens can mitigate some of it, but there is more going on that makes a larger difference. As our recognition of the splendor of God’s creation in the heavens has increased, the joy of observing seems to increase. In short, it seems to us that the joy of the Lord becomes our strength in the activity.
Finding that strength on this evening in middle September was a good example. God provided transparent skies; our schedule had been freed from its typical bondages. We decided to chase the southern skies before some of our favorite regions got too low to observe. In our lattitude, the summer months give us a good glimpse of some southern beauties, and we looked at some for 20 minutes or so but wanted to try something new. We roamed around the star charts and found NGC 6445 and 6440. We observed and sketched rapidly.
Finding joy in the Lord is the privilege of the believer in Jesus Christ. It is hard to describe it and there is no formula to obtain it. When it happens, however, you know it. It is much more than just having a nice time because it can be found in bad times. Joy is not an emotion, although an emotion can accompany it. It is more profound: it is finding God present. It happened in Nehemiah’s day as the law was read. It had not been read for a long time. The people were moved and began weeping because of their sin and the awsomeness of God. But Nehemiah stopped them and commanded them as he stated, “Do not grieve, the joy of the Lord is your strength.” (Neh 8:10)
Finding Him on this little night of observing was a quiet joy.
Technical note: It takes a medium sized telescope and the astro video camera to capture the color we observed in 6445. Its shapes, features, and colors make it very unusual but pretty. 6440 is very nearby and a more common type of object, but it was beautiful to us as well.
