Read Psalm 8:3-4
I’m not much of an astronomer. I can pick out a few constellations on a cloudless night, like the Big Dipper, Little Dipper, Orion, and the North Star, but that’s about it.
Yet, like the Psalmist, I am fascinated by God’s creative handiwork in the heavens. I feel like King David when I consider what He has created. I am both amazed and mystified. And I’m not alone.
Just ponder these observations about the sky above us:
“If the Milky Way galaxy were the size of the entire continent of North America, our solar system would fit in a coffee cup… Yet this vast neighborhood of our sun- in truth the size of a coffee cup – fits along with several hundred billion such galaxies in the universe. To send a light – speed message to the edge of the universe would take 15 billion years!” (Philip Yancey).
“One of the objects relatively near to us, a star named Epsilon, is actually larger than the orbit of the planet Pluto in our solar system! If it were hollow, it could contain more than 2.3 billion of our suns!“ (James Dobson).
“Why is the sun 12,000° hot? Why not 1200°… Or 120,000°… Or 24,000°? Why was the earth fixed at exactly the right distance away so that we could have a pleasant temperature this morning? Why not twice as far, twice as close, or 1000 times as far? Answer: because all life would perish…. This planet was designed by God so that it would support one thing: life. Without life, earth would be another planetary wasteland… Why life? Because only through life can matter understand God and glorify its maker! Only through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ can the designed know and glorify the Designer” (Chuck Swindoll).
This is what David understood! The glory of the universe not only points to the ability of the Creator, but also reminds us that He created it all for us to enjoy! It is His masterpiece which reminds us of His ability and calls us to worship Him.
Author and Pastor, Max Lucado, wrote, “We live in an art gallery of divine creativity.” 19th Century British historian and mathematician, Thomas Carlyle, said, “The universe is but one vast symbol of God.” The great American inventor and scientist, George Washington Carver, said: “I love to think of nature as an unlimited broadcasting station, through which God speaks to us every hour, if we will only tune in.”
So are you tuned in to God’s channel? Tonight … or tomorrow night … or whenever it’s clear again… take a walk outside and say to your Creator, “When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have set in place, who am I that you would love me enough to make it possible for me to have a relationship with you?” And worship Him!
Bob Fetterhoff