Ring Nebula (NIRCam Image) from NASA https://science.nasa.gov/asset/webb/ring-nebula-nircam-image/
What do you see here in this picture?
What if I told you this beautiful image was a portrait of death? That this type of painting in the sky could only be drawn with the dust of a dying star? As a follower of Christ, my heart can’t help but be tempted to see a glimpse of heaven in the eye shaped image left behind. God has gifted us such a wondrous world to see the power and beauty of His hands everywhere, even in the darkness of space.
So, here’s the prompt for today!
1. Make a list of 3 things that cause despair, (natural disasters, earthly struggles, anything).
2. Make a list of 3 of the best things that happened to you.
3. Write down 3 things you know or imagine about heaven, (anything with vivid imagery).
4. What does death mean for you as a Christian?
I came up with this prompt after researching the life cycle of stars. I've always been fascinated by how beautiful they look when they die. Look at this image caught of Ring Nebula in its final stage of death. Doesn't it look like a painting by the hands of God? In fact, it looks like God is watching over us!
The prompt today is to take something we think of traditionally as "bad" (#1), just like death, and to write about it as if it caused positive outcomes (#2). Think about a star dying, how in its death, it is more beautiful in its life.
End with the possibilities of #3 and #4. Is there something greater for you on the other side? Eternity with your Heavenly Father, perhaps? Look back to the image of Ring Nebula dying. If this represented the eye of God, what does God see when He looks at you, or, what do you see when you look up into the eyes of God?
My poem:
A dying star opens
The portal of the sky,
Opens the eye of God.
Did you see it?
He died in the dark.
The other side,
It was a blue day, cloudless.
Did you hear the children laughing?
There was no rain, no tears.
It was a fine explosion.
People are not scared
Of natural disasters,
They are scared of the aftermath.
If a hurricane ended in a million
Rows of corn stalks standing perfectly tall,
Ready to be harvested.
If after every tornado, one thousand
Babies were born smiling.
If after every forest fire,
A hundred grannies woke up
Their old bones and strutted out
Of the nursing home,
Planting their feet in the ocean.
The star explodes, and that red,
That fire, sits there
On the skyline of God’s eye.
Great suffering, great glory.
The inside of a flame,
It is yellow, is it not?
Lilies and goldenrod
And the honey of bumblebees.
It warms, it fades, the sun
Burns and heat waves cause death.
Too much of a good thing can end a life.
You can drink the water
And you can drown.
Go into the eye of the storm.
The only safe place, the middle of it.
Sometimes you must run into
The black hole and be swallowed,
Held, and cocooned like a baby.
I stared at the funeral of Ring Nebula.
I saw a thousand bunnies running up a hill.
I heard the children playing,
The angels plucking their harps.
I saw the edge of paradise
In the eye of God,
More beautiful than any painting
Our human hands could conjure.
