Screw Ups

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Thursday, December 7, 2023

Artist’s impression of a baby star still surrounded by a protoplanetary disc in which planets are forming. Using ESO’s very successful HARPS spectrograph, a team of astronomers has found that Sun-like stars which host planets have destroyed their lithium much more efficiently than planet-free stars. This finding does not only shed light on the low levels of this chemical element in the Sun, solving a long-standing mystery, but also provides astronomers with a very efficient way to pick out the stars most likely to host planets. It is not clear what causes the lithium to be destroyed. The general idea is that the planets or the presence of the protoplanetary disc disturb the interior of the star, bringing the lithium deeper down into the star than usual, into regions where the temperature is so hot that it is destroyed.

God’s Light Shines in Every Corner,

Even Where We Think We’ve Hidden Our Sins

Forgiving, Cleansing, and Purifying Us

Judges 10:10

So the Israelites cried to the Lord, saying, ‘We have sinned against you, because we have abandoned our God and have worshipped the Baals.’

Luke 1:76-77

And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation to his people by the forgiveness of their sins.

…

Words of Grace For Today

It is more comfortable in the short run, to hide from and deny our sins, but

…

But they catch up with us, and slowly devour us, unless

…

Unless we confess them and are forgiven.

This God promises to do for us.

This is the Good News that Jesus came to demonstrate with his living among us as one of us.

This is the Good News that we are given to share wherever we go with everyone we encounter.

Not that many people will like the call to confess their sins, especially when they (blindly) think that they have ‘gotten away with’ their sins.

Still this is the God’s gift to us all: forgiveness.

Without it we slowly are consumed by our own sins and by others.

So today (as every day)

we start again with confession,

and continue with forgiving others, and ourselves,

and

repeating that all day long.

Therein is life abundant.