Milford Sound, New Zealand - “Heaven of Heavens cannot contain you”

And now I pray, O God of Israel, let Your word come true, which You have spoken to Your servant David my father.  But will God indeed dwell on the earth?  Behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain you.  How much less this temple which I have built!

Yet regard the prayer of Your servant and his duplication, O LORD my God, and listen to the cry and the prayer which Your servant is praying before You today:  

That Your eyes may be open toward this temple night and day, toward the place of which You said, My name shall be there, that You may hear the prayer which Your servant makes toward this place.

1 Kings 8:26-29

 

Milford Sound, New Zealand - “My Chains are gone, I’ve been set free”

 

Amazing Grace

Amazing grace how sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me
I once was lost, but now I'm found
Was blind, but now I see

'Twas grace that taught my heart to fear
And grace my fears relieved
How precious did that grace appear
The hour I first believed

My chains are gone, I've been set free
My God, my Savior has ransomed me
And like a flood His mercy reigns
Unending love
Amazing grace

The Lord has promised good to me
His word my hope secures
He will my shield and portion be
As long as life endures

My chains are gone, I've been set free
My God, my Savior has ransomed me
And like a flood His mercy reigns
Unending love
Amazing grace

My chains are gone, I've been set free
My God, my Savior has ransomed me
And like a flood His mercy reigns
Unending love
Amazing grace

The earth shall soon dissolve like snow
The sun forbear to shine
But God, who called me here below
Will be forever mine, will be forever mine
You are forever mine

Songwriters: Chris Tomlin / Louie Giglio

Milford Sound, New Zealand - "King Over the Whole Earth"

 The LORD will be King over the whole earth.  On that day there will be one LORD, and his name the only name.

Zechariah 14:9

Milford Sound - Call To Me, And I Will Answer

 Call To Me, and I will Answer You, and show You great and mighty things, which You do not know.

Jeremiah 33:3 

Milford Sound - Treasures of Darkness

 

I will go before you and level the mountains,
I will break in pieces the doors of bronze
and cut through the bars of iron,
I will give you the treasures of darkness 
and riches hidden in secret places, 
so that you may know that it is I, the Lord, 
the God of Israel, who call you by your name.

Isaiah 45:2-3 NRSV

In the Roar of Your Waterfalls

 

In the roar of Your waterfalls,
ancient depths surge, calling out to the deep.
All your waves break over me;
am I downing?
Yet in the light of day, the Eternal shows me His love.
When night settles in and all is dark, He keeps me company--
His soothing song,  a prayerful melody to the True God of my life.
Even still, I will say to the True God, my rock and strength:
"Why have You forgotten me?
Why must I live my life so depressed, crying endlessly
while my enemies have the upper hand?"
My enemies taunt me.
they shatter my soul the way a sword shatters a man's bones.
They keep taunting all the day long,
"Where is He, your True God?"
Why am I so overwrought,
Why am I so disturbed?
Why can't I just hope in God?
Despite all my emotions, I will believe and praise the One
who saves me, my God.

Psalm 42:7-11

Sound of the Sea

Sound of the Sea

The sea awoke at midnight from its sleep,

And round the pebbly beaches far and wide

I heard the first wave of the rising tide

Rush onward with uninterrupted sweep;

A voice out of the silence of the deep,

A sound mysteriously multiplied

As of a cataract from the mountain's side,

Or roar of winds upon a wooded steep.

So  comes to us at times, from the unknown

And inaccessible solitudes of being,

The rushing of the sea-tides of the soul;

And inspirations, that we deem our own,

Are some divine foreshadowing and foreseeing

Of things beyond our reason or control.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Where Has the Light Gone?

 

"Where?  Where has it gone, that light, that spark, that love that looked into mine?  What has it to do with that cold clay?  It's here, here, here in my heart.  She's in me, around me.  Nothing in that clay."

~Anzia Yezierska

On Things Above

 

 

Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.

Colossians 3:2

River and Sea

River and Sea
by Ella Wheeler Wilcox


Under the light of the silver moon
We two sat, when our hearts were young;
The night was warm with the breath of June,
And loud from the meadow the cricket sung,
And darker and deeper, oh, love, than the sea,
Were your dear eyes, as they beamed to me.

The moon hung clear, and the night was still:
The waters reflected the glittering skies;
The nightingale sang on the distant hill;
But sweeter than all was the light in your eyes -
Your dear, dark eyes, your eyes like the sea -
And up from the depths shone love for me.

My heart, like a river, was mad and wild -
And a river is not deep, like the sea;
But I said yout love was the love of a child,
Compared with the love that was felt by me;
A river leaps noisily, kissing the land,
But the sea is fathomless, deep and grand.

I vowed to love you, for ever and ever!
I called you cold, on that night in June,
But my fierce love, like a reckless river,
Dashed on, and away, and was spent too soon;
While yours - ah, yours was deep like the sea;
I cheated you, love, but you died for me!               

"Straining to Win the Sky"

" The tree is more than first a seed, then a stem, then a living trunk, and then dead timber. The tree is a slow, enduring force straining to win the sky. "
~Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Wisdom of the Sands, translated from French by Stuart Gilbert

"Clown In the Moon"

Clown In The Moon

My tears are like the quiet drift

Of petals from some magic rose;
And all my grief flows from the rift
Of unremembered skies and snows.

I think, that if I touched the earth,
It would crumble;
It is so sad and beautiful,
So tremulously like a dream.

By Dylan Thomas

"Do Not Go Gentle Into that Good Night"

Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieve it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.


Dylan Thomas (1914-1953)

Milford Sound - Gallery I

These are photos from my one night cruise through Milford Sound to the Tasman Sea.  Fiordland National Park is New Zealand's rawest wilderness area of jagged mountains and forests.  It was cloudy and rainy in the evening so the sky was not clear enough to see the Fiordland's pristine skies.  The Southern Cross and Milky Way can be seen on a clear night. You have to be in the Southern Hemisphere to see Crux – the Southern Cross – in all its glory. Bluish Acrux, aka Alpha Crucis, is its brightest star.  I will probably never have the opportunity again.  Rain, Rain why didn't you go away?

 

Constellation Crux photo by Christopher J Picking in New Zealand. 

Te Anau Milford Highway

Driving to Milford Sound was probably the most nervous driving experience I had.  The sharp curves was a challenge for someone who is inexperience driving on the right side of the road.  I learned very quickly!  These photos were from the road side before heading up the mountains.