Wonder on the Web - Christianity Today (2024)

Google Nessie View

The search for the Loch Ness monster has carried on for centuries, and now Google has joined the hunt. For the 81st anniversary of the famous Surgeon's Photograph, allegedly capturing Nessie, Google took underwater and surrounding-area photographs and footage. If you’re a fan of kitten or other live animal cams, don’t miss the live Nessie cam. And if you’re a church history fan, be sure to read chapter 28 of Adamnan’s Life of St. Columba (here’s the oldest Latin manuscript), where he tells of the saint’s showdown with the “savage beast” who had just killed a man.

The Atoning Ascension

The release day for this issue, May 14, is also the day the church remembers Christ’s Ascension, which is why we included Malcolm Guite’s sonnet for this day. Though easily overlooked, Christ’s Ascension is vital to a Christian understanding of salvation. Enjoy this description from the introduction to T. F. Torrance’s Atonement:

The Ascension is the obverse of the Incarnation and marks its fulfilment. The Incarnation is the coming of God “down” to humanity, to assume human flesh and to be one with man in the person of Christ. The Ascension is Jesus’ taking of our humanity in his person into the presence of God into the union and communion of the love of the Trinity. From the very beginning the goal and purpose of the Incarnation was the reconciliation of humanity to God through the atoning union of God and man in Christ. Beginning on earth, the whole movement of the reconciling union of man to God in Christ was completed in heaven, in Christ’s taking our humanity into the eternal fellowship of love in the Trinity. If the Incarnation . . . was the meeting of God and man on earth in man’s place, then the Ascension is the meeting of man and God in heaven in God’s place. The Ascension can thus be seen to be the obverse of the Incarnation and its fulfilment.

Redemptive Diving

Bushman's Hole, one of the deepest caves in the world, is a scuba diver’s dream, but it’s also extremely dangerous. This American Life tells the story of Dave Shaw, a diver who risked—and gave—his life to return the lost remains of a diver named Deon Dreyer. Though Shaw’s mission killed him, it was successful: Dreyer’s remains were returned to his family. (There is also a powerful documentary film.) Shaw, it turns out, was a devout Christian who had worked with Mission Aviation Fellowship in Papua New Guinea.

Taking Bird Watching to a New Level

The honey buzzard is a two-foot-long bird that migrates from Europe to Africa each year. This animation from the University of Amsterdam reconstructs data from the unique journeys of two such birds on a global scale.