.......glory

A few years ago I visited a planetarium and remember coming away with a renewed wonder of God's creation. I saw many pictures taken from large telescopes and even many taken from space. The stars are fascinating! I've often looked into the night sky and wondered about God's promise to Abraham: "'Look up at the heavens and count the stars - if indeed you can count them.' Then He said to him, 'So shall your offspring be'" Genesis 15:5. When Abraham looked into that dark clear sky, you can be sure he saw a LOT of stars.

But as incredible as our night sky appears, the facts of our universe quickly become staggering. During the day we see the sun - which is really just the closest of all the stars. Our sun, though it appears large, is a relatively small star located 149.7 million kilometres from Earth. This distance is about the same as traveling around the world 4,000 times. And though this distance is hard to comprehend, the next nearest star is 270,000 time farther away. But that's only two of the 200 billion stars in our Milky Way galaxy - a galaxy which takes light 100,000 years to travel from one end to the other!!

But as incredible as our galaxy appears, the Milky Way is but one of billions of other galaxies within the Universe. There are estimated to be as many galaxies in the Universe as there are stars in the Milky Way.

But as incredible as our Universe appears...

"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." Genesis 1:1

Just like that, it was done...and it was good. The Creator spoke and the Universe appeared. He then selected one of the billions of galaxies, one of the billions of stars within the galaxy, and one of the many planets around this star to create a people to call His own. God's plan from before the foundations of the world was to create a family who is adopted "as His sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with His pleasure and will - to the praise of His glorious grace" Ephesians 1:5-6.

We who believe that Jesus Christ died for the forgiveness of our sin have become a testimony of praise to God's glory and grace. In the same way, the immensity of the stars give testimony; "The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands" Psalm 19:1. 

I can barely understand the distance to our sun, let alone the size of our galaxy or the size of the Universe, and I'll spend a lifetime trying to comprehend the "size" of our God; "The heavens proclaim His righteousness, and all the peoples see His glory" Psalm 97:6.

If we would look up on a clear night we might see that our perceived status, as well as our varied problems, are all quite small. And we might begin to understand our God to be much, much bigger than we thought. We might even just shake our head, as we try to understand His love, and realize this is all for His glory.

- steve troxel