Yesterday I saw some of the coolest things I have ever seen in my life! It was a day full of wonder after wonder! I went to bed in total awe at how incredible, thoughtful, and detail-oriented our Creator is!

I had the afternoon off yesterday, so I decided to bring my crocheting to the bow, where Chelsea and I hung out for nearly two hours. Soon after we walked out onto the bow, we saw several dolphins nearby. Within fifteen minutes, we were completely surrounded by at least 50 dolphins. A couple at a time would come up and swim directly in front of the ship. At one point, there were five dolphins swimming together, appearing to pull the ship as the glided effortlessly through the water! As I leaned over the edge of the bow, I could hear their high-pitched squeals as the talked to each other! The dolphins further off in the distance were doing twists, turns, and flips, seemingly putting on a show for all of the spectators. Typically, when dolphins are sighted, they only swim with us for about five minutes before falling completely out of sight again. But yesterday, they dolphins stayed with us for nearly an hour! It was absolutely incredible!

Later on in the evening, all of the crew were invited to a showing of the film "The Star of Bethlehem." I had heard that this was an interesting documentary, but I honestly did not expect to be too overwhelmed by the information presented. I assumed it would be another documentary of interesting observances, but nothing to make me drop my jaw over. In this matter, I was completely wrong!

The film was about one man's quest to unlock the mystery of the Bethlehem Star that led the Magi to Jesus. The man was not an astronomer, he was a lawyer. But God had ignited in him an interest in this one particular star. As he researched, he began to uncover dozens of signs placed in the sky throughout history! He used several clues found in the Old Testament to help him figure out what exactly the "Star of Bethlehem" could have been. He not only found out some incredible interesting facts, he also was able to find several prophecies and visions mentioned in the Old and New Testaments fulfilled through the alignment of the stars! On top of it all, he was able to see how the stars portrayed signs to the Jews on the day of Jesus' conception, at the moment of his birth, and at the second of his death! But since all of the stars and planets work like clockwork, everything had to have been aligned from the very second the universe came into being. Therefore, at the instant God began His creation, He knew the exact moment that He would appear to Mary, the second His Son would be born, and the instant He would die, forgiving the sins of the world.

I wish I could attempt to explain what all I saw, but since I am not the most knowledgeable person in the field of astronomy, I know that I would likely get all of my facts mixed up. Also, there was SO much that I learned last night, that I cannot even attempt to put it all into writing, or else this blog would go on for pages!

Thankfully, the man who created the film has his own website that explains all of his findings, so instead of attempting to explain it all here, I would encourage anyone who reads this to visit the site! Prepare to be completely awestruck at the incredible detail and precision of our Creator from the moment He put the universe into motion! The site is www.bethlehemstar.net

After the movie was finished, our small group met for our weekly Wednesday meeting. We spent over an hour just praising God and discussing how incredible He is! The only word we could come up with to possibly describe it all is WOW! Nothing else seems to encompass how speechless, awestruck, overwhelmed, and amazed we all felt!

At midnight, Kaylee and I were invited back to the bridge as some of our good friends were on the 12-4 watch. We were given the opportunity to steer the ship, which was of course so much fun! After we steered for a while, she and I stepped outside onto the catwalk in front of the bridge. Kaylee read my blog written a couple of days ago describing the view I saw from the catwalk on Sunday evening. She wanted to see the view for herself, so I brought her to the same spot. Last night, however, we saw something even more incredible! The water was full of millions of plankton-like creatures that began to glow as soon as something touched them. As the ship moved along, all of the waves seemed were full of glowing spots, matching the stars in the night sky. Suddenly, a dolphin came swimming past the ship in a zig-zagging motion, lighting up all of the plankton as he swam. The result was a swirling line of glowing water creating a tail behind the dolphin as he swam! It was beautiful, like one of the magical scenes portrayed in a Disney movie.

This morning, as I had my quiet time, I could not do anything but praise God for all of the beautiful, wonderful Creation I have seen over the past few days. I still am completely awestruck and at a loss for words to describe how excited and overwhelmed I feel.