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Week 5 Saturday
Scripture Verses
- Psalm 19:1–14
- Genesis 1:1–31
- Ephesians 3:14–19
Questions to Consider
- What does creation tell us about God?
- Why do we put limits on the glory and power of God?
- How does seeing God for who he is, give us confidence in the face of trial and adversity?
- What does it mean to you that the God of the universe wants to have a relationship with you?
Plan of Action
- Go outside at night and look up. Consider the vastness of the universe and what it took to create it. Thank God for how amazing he is.
- The next time you are feeling overwhelmed by a problem, read Psalm 19 and consider the universe.
Reflection
I’ve always been fascinated with astronomy. To me in astronomy is the study of just how big our God is. The study of astronomy is something so humbling. If you want to feel small just look at the sky.
It says in the Psalms:
The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Psalm 19:1 (ESV)
In 1990 the Spacecraft Voyager reached the edge of the solar system 3.7 billion miles after traveling for 12 years at a speed of 40,000 miles per hour. Scientists told the spacecraft to turn around and take a picture where it came from. This was the picture it took:
It looks like someone forgot to take the lens cap off. But the reality is that this is the darkness of space. The rays of color in the picture are rays of the sun reflecting off the spacecraft. If you look in the beam of light on the right you will see one small white pixel that looks out of place. It’s a picture of you! Did you smile? That one pixel is the Earth.
Are you feeling small? If not consider this: Light travels at 186,000 miles/second. That is really fast. What that means is that it takes one second for light to travel 7 1/2 times around the earth. It takes 8 minutes and 17 seconds to get here from the sun 93 million miles away.
The reason I talk about the speed of light is because the mile is a useless measurement in space. When we start talking about space we use the measurement of the light year. Light will travel 5.9 trillion miles in one year. Some implications of this:
- Realize that would take more than 4 light years to reach the next closest star beyond our sun. There is no technology available today that would even allow us to consider making it there.
- Even if we could travel at the speed of light, we could not travel across our galaxy in our lifetime. It is estimated our Milky Way Galaxy would take 100,000 years to travel across at the speed of light. And to think there are many more galaxies beyond our own Milky Way Galaxy.
- The next closest galaxy, Andromeda, is is 2.2 million light years away. If you are wondering, we are scheduled to collide with Andromeda in 5 billion years.
In so many ways the universe is bigger than our reach and our understanding. This is not so much an exercise to make you feel small, but to help you realize just how big God is. When we think about God, he is bigger than the universe. He created it. He formed the sun, the Milky Way, and the other distant galaxies in the universe.
It has been said, “don’t tell your God how big your problem is, tell your problem how big your God is.” It is amazing to think how the God of the infinite universe cares about you so much that he knows even the number of hairs on your head. He is your creator and he knows you even better than you know yourself. So let’s give up our small view of God!
This article makes me think of a Casting Crowns song named “Just Be Held”.
I am a devoted Catholic. I am so grateful for your website. Reading each account during Lent has been very uplifting for me. I very much enjoy your writing and how easy you make relative to our lives. Thank you and God bless.
Thank Ginny for your kind words.