coffee comfort

Here's a great illustration of what the sun is doing right now. I met Laura on the way to the Coffee Shop this evening and took a picture of her bright personality. The picture was taken about 9pm and from here, the sun will head directly left in the picture across the sky before it gets higher again during the day.I am sitting in the coffee shop right now with 3 other people. We're all attached to the internet with our ethernet cables and have squished our laptops together on a small square table. I've already sipped my $1.50 mocha down to the last drop and ready to start my day here while everyone else winds down for bed. The coffee shop is a low key social point for McMurdo and doubles as a wine bar as well. There's a warm, dark environment here that is usually sociable and comfortable. Although, now that the temps are warming a bit, the leaks in the roof make themselves known!The building is rustic. It's a jamesway, redecorated to accomodate the coffee & wine drinking crowd. There are card games, Chess, Scrabble, and Settlers of Catan games in progress and lots of friendly chatter to complete the atmosphere. Tonight my friends joined me for awhile and enjoyed some downtime together. This is my second of two nights off. Yesterday I completed my housekeeping tasks like balancing the checkbook and doing laundry. This evening, I'm enjoying the music and chatting with the seal scientists! They are a group of people who I am fortunate to have gotten delayed in Auckland with. I missed my flight in baggage and customs and they were also held up, so I got a chance to introduce myself and talk about what they would be doing on The Ice. They are a group of only a few who have seen penguins while out and about. They have also been having immense success in their seal research and today they are at the Coffee Shop to celebrate putting their first tracking device on a seal today. Most of the time they are tagging and weighing and counting.

These folks remind me what I'm ultimately here for. They truly put the excitement into the job. Their enthusiasm for their research is addictive and it feels so great to know what I'm doing enables their success!And, now, as I sit and contemplate the research going on here, I'm being reflective:

“Who else has held the oceans in his hand? Who has measured off the heavens with his fingers? Who else knows the weight of the earth or has weighed the mountains and hills on a scale?” Isaiah 40:12

It struck me as cynically funny that we, people, are trying to estimate the mass of ice shelves, define the dimensions of the ozone hole, count penguins from photographs, unravel the mystery of global warming, and explore the layers beneath the sea when there is One who knows it all; and has more accurate measurements than any of our technical instrumentation can hope to facilitate. I feel like God is the silent listener in a conversation – the person who knows the topic of discussion, but only divulges his expertise after he’s listened to everyone else offer their haphazard comments and uninformed statistics. But, I think, God enjoys watching us explore Creation. I think of someone who creates a puzzle, and views, in amazement, as a child pieces it together.

“Have you never heard? Have you never understood? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of all the earth. He never grows weak or weary. No one can measure the depths of his understanding.” Isaiah 40:28