Wonder on the Web

Issue 34: Links to amazing stuff.

Every Image of the Solar System You’ve Ever Seen Is Inaccurate

Because, planets, it turns out, are microscopic compared to the distances between them, which are pretty much impossible to represent in an image. So, yep, you guessed it, we’re going to offer a model that is accurate—and beautiful cinematography to frame it all. Prepare to feel small. And then go back and read Mark Galli’s essay again.

Speaking of Whales

This issue’s whale fall essay and poem point to the incredible ways whales can serve their ecosystems, even in their death. Enjoy also this lovely Memory Palacepoem/podcast considering what it might be like to be an aging bowhead whale. And this video of humpback whales playing under the Aurora Borealis off the coast of Norway. Okay. We’ll stop there. As you might expect for a magazine called The Behemoth, we could do whale stuff all day long.

Doodling in Church: Allowed

We may have been raised on the idea that “God’s house” demands a level of respect that does not make much room for play—no running, no shouting. But according to Christian illustrator John Hendrix, play is at act of worship.

Kids play all the time—it’s their work. For adults, play is very difficult. Sitting down and having fun and trying to enjoy that act of creation—that’s an act of worship. That’s what God was doing when he made things. That’s something I try to cultivate.

And it’s to our great benefit that he does this weekly, doodling along with the sermon. He shares some of these illustrations in a new book—and in a subsequent Christianity Today feature you don’t want to miss.

Botanical Bats

Looking at this collection of “vanity shots” of bats, we couldn’t help thinking how their noses and ears, intricately folded and whimsically shaped, resemble plant life. “Your works are wonderful, I know that full well” (Ps. 139:14).

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Also in this Issue

Issue 34 / October 29, 2015
  1. Editor's Note from October 29, 2015

    Issue 34: The long, weighty future of a whale’s body, God’s childlike attention, and hip op. /

  2. Sunken Treasure

    The end of a great creature’s life is the beginning of a long, deep community. /

  3. Deeper than Deep Space

    The unbelievable and unfathomable truth of the universe is God’s childlike gaze. /

  4. The Joint of Strength and Mortality

    A doctor looks at Jacob’s hip. /

  5. Whale Fall

    “Its carrion / carries on” /

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