Nature & the Seasons – The Faith Cafe

Posted on May 6, 2024April 4, 2024 by Lori Cartmell · 2 Comments

It’s Raining Diamonds!

Image by PublicDomainPictures from Pixabay

If diamonds are a girl’s best friend, I’m on the wrong planet.

I’ve just discovered that there are planets on which it rains diamonds.

Scientists believe that diamond rain could occur deep in the atmospheres of our gas giant neighbours in the solar system: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.

Thousands of miles below the surface of these planets, carbon atoms come under such crushing pressure in the dense atmospheres that diamonds could form. The conditions are so extreme that further down, the diamonds could melt into liquid, forming diamond “rain” drops.

On some planets in the universe, these drizzles could involve diamonds millions of carats in size.

The wonders of the cosmos don’t end there. Scientists suggest that on the exoplanet WASP-121b it rains liquid rubies and sapphires. Clouds on this planet could be made of corundum, a mineral out of which these precious gems are formed.

It gets better.

The asteroid Psyche 16, which orbits the sun in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, is made entirely of solid metal. It has enough gold to turn every person on Earth into a billionaire. As well as gold, this intriguing minor planet contains metals such as platinum, iron and nickel in abundance. If Psyche 16’s metals were on Earth, their combined value would be worth perhaps $100,000 quadrillion.

Talk about an embarrassment of riches!

What does all this tell us?

That the precious gems and metals we covet are a dime a dozen in God’s universe. After all, Scripture tells us that in Heaven, the streets are paved with gold.

More importantly, God has an inexhaustible supply of the things that we truly need: grace, mercy, love, and forgiveness.

Posted on April 22, 2024March 26, 2024 by Lori Cartmell

Jesus Has an Open Door Policy

When building a birdhouse for your feathered friends, the size of the “front door” is crucial.

You must create the right-sized entrance hole or the “wrong” bird will take up residence.

For instance, a wren or chickadee prefers an entrance hole to be about 1.125 inches across. A bluebird likes a slightly bigger doorway, about 1.5 inches in diameter.

A finch needs an opening 2 inches across, thank you very much, and purple martins prefer a bit more wiggle room than that to squeeze through the front door.

And if you don’t surround the hole with protective metal mesh, the squirrels will chew the hole bigger and move in themselves. Then you’ll discover you’re the proud owner of a squirrel house (I learned this the hard way).

All of this got me thinking about the story of Noah’s Ark in the Bible…

Posted on April 8, 2024March 16, 2024 by Lori Cartmell

Why Is The Universe So Big?

Have you ever wondered why the universe is so immensely big?

Astronomers at NASA suggest that the most distant objects in the universe are about 47 billion light years away from Earth. This would make the size of the observable universe about 94 billion light years across. (A light year is the distance light travels in one year, about 6 million million miles.)

But that just describes the extent of our observable limits. The universe is vastly larger than that, because it is expanding at a rapid rate.

If there is an “edge” to the universe, it’s expanding away from us faster than we could ever catch up. No matter how swift our spaceship, we would never hit a boundary of some kind.

So for all practical purposes, you could say that the universe is infinitely big.

But why did God create it this way?

Posted on March 25, 2024February 29, 2024 by Lori Cartmell

The Mystery of the Larch Tree

It’s easy to categorize trees, isn’t it?

Deciduous trees lose their leaves in the autumn. Coniferous trees bear cones and keep their needles throughout the year. It’s simple to tell them apart.

Case closed, right?

But what about the larch tree? It bears cones and has needles like a conifer, but the needles drop off each autumn like a deciduous tree.

So which is it, coniferous or deciduous?

The answer to this mystery is that it’s both at once. The larch tree is actually a “deciduous conifer.”

Larches fall into a special third category of tree. It’s a member of the pine family, and yet its wood is harder than pine wood; it’s more like the hardwood of deciduous trees. It has needles like a conifer, but they turn a golden yellow each autumn and drop off, like the leaves of a deciduous tree.

Larches are a rare combination of deciduous and coniferous, unique trees with characteristics of both.

You could say that larches are two things at the same time.

In the same way, you could say that Jesus was two things at once. Just as the larch is one tree with two natures, Jesus was one being with dual natures: both God and human.

Posted on March 11, 2024February 29, 2024 by Lori Cartmell

God Will Provide

If you live in eastern North America, you might be lucky enough to have seen a gorgeous bird called the northern cardinal.

The male is especially distinctive, with his breathtaking red plumage and black “mask” on his face.

Up here in Canada, the cardinal is at the northernmost part of its range. We’re especially fortunate that, unlike many songbirds, cardinals don’t migrate south for the winter. We get to enjoy their presence year-round.

But what on earth do the cardinals eat here, when parts of Canada might be covered in several feet of snow?

Posted on February 26, 2024February 9, 2024 by Lori Cartmell

Spring Is On Its Way!

The shortest day of the year in the northern hemisphere is the winter solstice, which occurred last year on December 21st. From that day on, the days begin to lengthen and the sun’s position in the sky begins to rise from our perspective.

But if the days are now getting longer and we’re getting more sunlight, why does it keep getting colder and snowier here in January and February?

Where is spring?

There are two reasons for this temperature lag: one having to do with the tilt of the earth, the other with how slowly the earth heats up and cools down in response to the sun’s energy.

Think of a rock near a bonfire. When the fire is first lit, the rock will stay cool for a while. It takes time for it to heat up, even though it’s being exposed to a roaring fire. The rock will eventually absorb the fire’s heat, though, and will retain that heat for a while even after the fire is put out.

Similarly, even though the days are now lengthening, it takes time for the earth to warm up, resulting in colder temperatures in the early months of the year. The earth is also slow to release accumulated heat energy from the sun after the summer solstice in June. This gives us hotter July and August days in the northern hemisphere, even as the days are getting shorter.

In the same way, sometimes we pray about something but don’t see any immediate results. There seems to be an inexplicable “lag” in receiving answers to our prayers. We don’t see any evidence that things are changing; in fact, our situation might seem to get worse.

What’s going on? Where is our “spring”?

I think we need to understand that God can answer our prayers in several ways.

Posted on February 19, 2024February 9, 2024 by Lori Cartmell

Are You At The Breaking Point?

“Ice Cathedrals” photo by Daryne Rockett on Flickr CC-BY-NC-SA 2.0

If you live in a cold climate, have you ever woken up to discover that there had been an ice storm overnight? You look outside to find the bare branches of the trees are encased in a thick layer of ice.

The effect can be absolutely stunning. The branches glisten and sparkle in the sunlight. People rush outside to take photos of the ice-covered trees.

But the beauty masks a danger: those bare branches are at risk. They were never meant to carry the weight of so much ice. The branches may break off, and the tree can be left devastated.

Do you ever feel like you’re carrying too much “weight”?

We often take on too much responsibility in our lives; we carry too much weight on our shoulders. We try to juggle being a spouse, parent, employee, friend, and volunteer. It may look impressive from the outside: people might even admire our glistening, seemingly perfect lives.

But behind the facade lies an uncomfortable fact: we’re at risk. We were never meant to carry all those burdens ourselves. It may seem like we’re coping, but the weight will soon become too much to bear.

The truth is, we’re about to break.

Posted on January 29, 2024January 10, 2024 by Lori Cartmell

The Polar Bear’s Secret

Pop quiz: What colour is a polar bear’s skin?

Did you guess “white”?

It’s the obvious answer, isn’t it, because their fur is white.

Surprisingly, though, you’d be wrong.

If you shaved a polar bear, you’d discover that it would look much like its cousin, the black bear.

That’s right: polar bears have black skin!

Don’t believe me? Here’s a clue: check out their noses and foot pads. They’re both black. Their thick fur so completely hides the blackness underneath that you’d never know it’s there.

Not only that, but polar bears’ fur isn’t actually white.

Pardon me?

It’s true! Their outer coat of fur consists of translucent hollow hairs that scatter and reflect visible light. These hairs have no white pigment, but merely appear white due to an optical trick involving the physics of light.

The polar bears certainly had us fooled, didn’t they?

And they’re not the only ones.

There are people whose lives have been so thoroughly changed by the gospel of Christ that you’d be shocked to discover their dark past.

Posted on November 13, 2023October 18, 2023 by Lori Cartmell

Shine Your Light!

If you’re fumbling around in the darkness, what should you do?

Turn on a light, of course.

But there are places on earth where this truism can have unexpected effects.

The “midnight zone” of oceans is one of them.

This zone, ranging from about 3,000 to 13,000 feet below the water’s surface, is in constant darkness. The sun’s rays simply cannot penetrate this far down.

The only light at this extreme depth comes from the bioluminescence of various sea creatures themselves.

Scientists who want to study the sea life in this region are faced with a problem. Normally, if you want to examine a dark area, you’d simply shine a light into it. Indeed, the submersibles scientists use for underwater research have headlights for this express purpose.

But casting a light on the creatures in the midnight zone freaks them out. They’re not used to bright light, and assume it’s some sort of enemy.

Startled swordfish will attempt kamikaze runs at a submersible’s lights. Other creatures are blinded or are plunged into terror by the blazing illumination: they either freeze or flee.

Scientists soon realized that their submersibles’ lights were simply creating a no-go zone around the vessel, hampering their research. So they switched to using a red light, a colour which most of the undersea creatures can’t see.

Sometimes light can have a contradictory effect, can’t it?

As believers we see this when we introduce the light of Christ to others.

Posted on October 23, 2023October 16, 2023 by Lori Cartmell

The Cure for Seasickness

Ever been to sea?

If you have, you just might have experienced a bout of seasickness. For landlubbers, the first time on a boat that is rolling and pitching on the waves can produce feelings of nausea.

Why is this?

The problem is a disconnect between the messages your eyes and your inner ear are giving your brain. If you’re in an enclosed space on a boat, your eyes tell you that you’re standing on level ground. The fluids swishing around in your inner ear, however, tell a different story: that you’re being tossed to and fro. It’s the contradictions between these messages that produces the sensation of seasickness.

So what’s the solution?

A time-tested remedy for seasickness is to get up on deck and look at the horizon: it’s the only thing that isn’t moving when the boat you’re aboard encounters heavy seas.

Looking at a fixed target gives your eyes a stationary point of reference, allowing your brain to reconcile this information with the motions your inner ear is reporting. Once you can see what “level” is, your brain can more easily deal with the feeling of movement from your inner ear.

And this isn’t just an old-wives’ tale: scientific studies have backed up the idea that staring at the horizon actually does make you feel steadier while at sea.

But what if you’re on dry land and feel “seasick” with the turbulence in your life?

What if it feels like the challenges in your life have put you in heavy, roiling seas, and you can barely tell up from down?

The same advice applies: focus on a fixed point, something that can be relied upon not to change.

For believers, that thing is Jesus.