God Revealed in the Creation of the Heavens

“When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them? (NIV)

 

Can you agree with me that God must be bigger than what He created?   This picture was taken by the Hubble telescope.  Lots of stars, right?  Not so fast, what you see are not stars; they are galaxies.  Okay, lots of galaxies.  Ten thousand galaxies, at least that is how many galaxies astronomers have been able to determine that there are in this picture.  Okay, I’m impressed, but how big a portion of the sky does this picture include?  If you were to hold a dime at arm’s length and look at the sky, you will see just how much of the sky this covers.  I’ve read that the camera was focused on a rather dark section of the sky.  Astronomers estimate that a galaxy contains from 100,000,000,000 to 400,000,000,000 stars.  These are some pretty big numbers.  Let’s take a look at a small galaxy, one that contains 100,000,000,000 stars, and let’s use something familiar to examine the size of that number.   Suppose I were to give you $100 every minute of every day.  How long do you think it would take for me to give you $100,000,000,000?  No, too short, guess longer.  My calculator shows that it would take a little over one thousand nine hundred two and one half years for you to get your $100,000,000,000.   Okay, this is not a good time to think about the national debt.

Close by creations, Jupiter and Saturn

So, God must be very large to have created all of this.  If He is that large, can He have any thought about me, one person on one planet near a medium-sized star like our Sun?  Well, He knows me, and He knows you.  He loves me and He loves you.  He loves each of us enough to want to have us with Him, not for 100,000,000,000 years, but for eternity.  He did something very special to make that happen.  He sent His Son, Jesus, to accept the penalty for every sin that has ever been committed—yes, mine, yours, and everybody else’s.  If we are willing to accept this fantastic gift, the forgiveness of our sins, then we will spend eternity with this great big God.  I’ve accepted His gift, salvation, and if you have, I’ll get to meet you someday.  I’m looking forward to that.  So, it turns out that God’s heart is also bigger than the universe He created.   This news is too good to keep to ourselves.  We need to share it with everyone--friends, neighbors, family, and even with people that we may not even like very much.

Further away creations, a spiral galaxy and a barred-spiral galaxy 

A magnificent creation by our magnificent God!

(And He knows your name.)

All photographs from the Hubble telescope.