September 26, 2005
In a Galaxy Far, Far Away
Yesterday’s service was the second part in a series by Lou Giglio called “Indescribable.” Lou, an astronomy buff if there ever was one, had photos from the Hubble Telescope that he showed to us one by one. Now, I’ve never been much of a science girl and once you start talking about “light years” and things being trillion upon trillions of miles away, and 1,000 times more powerful than the sun, my brain stops computing all of that and starts thinking in terms like “oooh, pretty” and “wow, big.”
Still, it was a powerful message and it makes the lyrics to old hymns like “How Great Thou Art,” even more poignant:
“O Lord my God, When I in awesome wonder, Consider all the worlds Thy Hands have made; I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder, Thy power throughout the universe displayed…Then sings my soul, my savior God to thee, How great Thou art!”
When Carl Boberg, a young Swedish pastor, wrote those stanzas in 1886 there was no giant telescope that could peer beyond the Milky Way. We didn’t yet know about things like the Whirlpool Galaxy (a “grand design” galaxy), or that our solar system was just a fraction of a fraction of the vastness that is the Universe. But God was God then, as He is God today, and He, like the speed of light, is constant.
Seeing those images popped it all into perspective for me. My life is small. I am small. I am teeny, tiny. Just a girl who’s been here for a nanosecond and who will be gone in another, but a girl who God has called by name – a girl He has loved, and will love, for eternity. It's humbling and it helps me frame my faith - to realize that in the same heartbeat it has nothing, and everything, to do with me.
I don’t know what is beyond our atmosphere, what lies in the infinite distance of the universe. I don’t know why it was created, or why He has since given us the means to look up and out. Maybe those stars and planets were just for fun. Maybe they are out there, in their indescribable vastness and power, so that we may know that He is God.
Posted by hannah at 05:10 PM
Beautifully said.
Posted by Sithean on September 26, 2005 06:10 PM
