The Bible begins with the creation of the universe. Since it rather quickly moves on to Adam and Eve and their adventure in the Garden of Eden, it can be easy to miss the incredible scope of God’s original project.
The universe is so vast we can’t comprehend it. Of course we can’t. Why would we expect to? The cosmos is a thing of God, not man. Like many of His works, it defies our limited understanding.
RELATED: Check out more stories on faith and culture from Ken Lass.
Take, for example, the night sky. Did you know when you look up on a clear night, you are not seeing the stars as they are at that moment? You are looking at the past. It has taken the light from those stars a long time to reach you. The light from our sun takes about eight minutes to get here. But other stars are much farther away.
The next closest is Proxima Centauri, which is four light years away. Light travels at roughly 186,000 miles per second. It is the fastest thing we know of. At that speed, it would take four years to get to Proxima Centauri.
That’s nothing. Ever see the bright North Star? It’s at the end of the handle in the Little Dipper. That light takes more than 430 light years to get here! And there are millions of stars much further away. The universe is so immense we can’t even imagine it!
‘Hope for the universe’
Yet, as far as we can tell, we are the only place in God’s creation where humans exist. Billions of planets, and it appears to be just us. Many say that makes them feel small and insignificant. I think just the opposite. I see humankind as God’s hope for the universe. Created in His own image. His special project.
The 8th Psalm says it all: “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? You have made them a little lower than the angels and crowned them with glory and honor. You made them rulers over the works of your hands; you put everything under their feet” (Ps. 8:3-6).
God put us in charge of the universe. Let’s live like we are worthy of it.
EDITOR’S NOTE — Ken Lass is a retired Birmingham television news and sports anchor and an award-winning columnist for numerous publications and websites.
Share with others: