How Big is God?

Hello and Bongiorno! As Italy gets closer, I find its words constantly on the tip of my tongue; we're all so excited. This week is very regular, and without an astronomer coming, we the students are focusing more on preparing for the trip. But enough of that. You came to hear about our week, and boy do I have things to tell!

I believe we left off on Tuesday evening. Well, after finishing work, the entire fellowship, including Caleb and his family, piled into various vehicles and sped into Southern Pines. Jacob Crowell's family had invited us all to dinner at their beautiful house. His father cooked a fantastic Japanese feast which satisfied even the most energetic of the teenagers. We had a fantastic time there. Most of us brought bathing suits and jumped in their illuminated pool, swimming and diving in the heavy rain. Our feats of aerobatics grew to new levels as we all pushed our limits. We all saw a few great spectacles. Once we'd worn ourselves out, we returned to the house and talked with our hosts about Italy. They had just come from a similar trip and had plenty to say. We all drank in every word and had to tear ourselves away from the conversation too early. That night, we dreamed of Rome and the things we would see there.

We came down to earth the next day with the practicality of SAT testing. David Bortins has joined us in the mornings to prepare for his own SAT. Earlier in the year, Leigh said she was going to take the test along with all of us. I hope she does. As much stress as we'll have over that October morning, I'm looking forward to it. I've taken the SAT twice before, and I felt very isolated each time. This time, we go in as a fellowship. And to a homeschooler like me? Well that's golden.

So Wednesday morning passed in mathematics, and Caleb surprised us with a free afternoon. We went home for lunch and had a much appreciated hour of free time. We went back to the house after work for an hour of Astronomy. Mrs. Leigh introduced us to our upcoming guest, James Burr, a scientist and inventor. We watched a clip of one of his lectures and listened to him sing a chorus which he repeated for us later. It read like this: 
How big is God, how big and wide is His domain/
To try to tell these lips can only start/
He's big enough to rule his mighty universe/
Yet small enough to live within my heart.
We left at about nine o'clock and finished out our evening at the villas.

When I walked out of my door on Thursday, I knew I was in for a treat. There is a certain kind of day which comes along only once or twice in a summer. The sun shines brightly, but never in your eyes. The breeze wicks away its heat before it can stick to your skin. The air feels like gossamer, and if you strain your senses, you can sometimes catch a glimpse of fairies peeking out from between the flowers in the garden. This was one such day. Samuel, Elizabeth, and I agreed that it felt like home in Vermont. We ended math earlier than normal, and fit music in before lunch. This gave us another long lunch break, and we used it well, most of us enjoying the pleasant outdoors. Needless to say, by the time I drove to work, I was a little giddy with the day. I was so enamored with memories of Maine, and telling Laura about how much I miss visiting it, that I missed my turn onto Vermont Avenue. I knew I could just go around by the next road, so I continued. Well, of course that road was Maine Avenue. It shut me up for the rest of the drive. God is so detailed, and he's paying attention. After work, a few of us played basketball in the driveway until William and Anna dragged a bunch of us to a nearby house to party with their wonderfully nerdy friends. It was another good night.

We slept in an hour on Friday and woke up excited for the weekend. When we got to the house, Jacob Skogen, Caleb's brother and pastor-in-training led us in a full hour of Bible study. We sang our hearts out and moved on to an hour of music and then of math to show our guest how we do things here. We had a few more great discussions over lunch, including the place of government in education and how God can be outside of time. It was after lunch though when things really took off. The sky was grey all day, but Mr. Burr took us on a tour of the marvels of the universe for the next five hours. This man understands very well that the heavens declare the glory of God. We ended at dinner time and spent the rest of the evening hanging around the house. Some of the guys went swimming and soon discovered that the water was just too cold, so we returned to the beach, intending to go back to the house. Well, two hours later, we had constructed a beautiful Aztec city in the sand with a three-foot-tall pyramid in the center. Once we realized we could use our geometric notions to help build it, we resolved to make it excellent, and I believe we succeeded. We watched the sunset through the silhouette of our kingdom and were back by nightfall, well satisfied and ready for more shenanigans. Gathering a horde of people and some leftovers from the fridge, we moved a few couches into the classroom and watched Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers together. All in all, it was a very productive day.

The next morning we were a little more sluggish than usual as we started, but we made up for it with our excited participation. Unfortunately, the sky was completely overcast again, and we couldn't go out. Mr. Burr is an expert on telescopes. He's dyslexic and he says that he checked out of high school long before he actually graduated, but as we talked to him on Saturday, we could see that he was brilliant. He's the kind of man who can solve any complicated problem with a block of wood and a bit of string. I know a lot of guys like this who work on farms and out in the woods, but Mr. Burr builds precision telescopes for a living. Coupled with his knack for mechanics, this gift has served him well, and we got to see some of the results of his work. He brought a compact telescope with him, and while we couldn't see into the sky, we were able to look across the lake at the far shore with amazing clarity. Our astronomy turned to bird watching when we caught sight of a beautiful heron and found that we could actually count its feathers. During lunch, the clouds parted briefly, and some of us were able to see the sun through his solar telescope. We had a few hours to kill after lunch. The girls ran off to a shoe store, and the guys stayed at the house together, talking, playing instruments, and reading out loud. He resumed at three, demonstrating the attributes of God apparent in nature, and after dinner we came back for our final class.

Over the two short days he had shared some amazingly technical marvels with us. Now, for two hours, he simply showed us the glories of the sky. We saw giant clouds of gas and dust, marvelously detailed, yet with stars thousands of times bigger than our sun standing between them and us, just specks of light. The scale of the universe is majestic. The scale of the God who builds that, yet who listens to my conversation and winks at me through a missed turn and a street sign is entirely unfathomable. I can't comprehend it. As Mr. Burr spoke, he welled up until he finally broke down and cried, and, still crying, prayed over us. There wasn't a dry eye in the room as we surrounded him with our hugs. I don't think I'll ever forget this weekend with him.

Compared with our time with him, the rest of the weekend seems flat, but a few noteworthy things did happen, so I'll mention them here. First of all, Anna turned eighteen on Sunday. A few nameless fellows decorated her car with washable paint, and filled it full of balloons. Seth joined choir at church. Anna's family threw a party and I got to spend time with her lovely grandmother, a woman full of stories and wisdom. We had a quiet night. Today was a little different. With nothing coming up this week, Leigh is putting an emphasis on the SAT math. We took two tests back to back and then she issued us an unrelated challenge. Brunelleschi, the genius who figured out how to build the dome of Santa Maria del Fiore, the crowning glory of Florence, could measure great heights with nothing but a mirror and a measuring stick. These were the tools she gave us, and she told us to find the height of the tallest pillar in her house. While we figured the process out, we had some trouble with finding the right numbers. We agreed to try at another time, this time with something we knew the height of. I suggested Brunelleschi dome itself, and thus the new challenge was set. After lunch, the men did choir alone, preparing for the November celebration. That brings us to where we are now, and where I will leave you for the night.

There is one thing left, and that is that I'm not sure what to do with the updates while we're in Italy. I would appreciate your input. What do you think? Should I continue it by week, post briefly but with more frequency, or simply save it for when I get home? Let me know in the comments below, on Facebook, or, if you want to relay it through Caleb, your child, or even a carrier pigeon, don't let me discourage you.

Until next time, arrivederci!
Barnabas