Sometimes we humans feel very small - and with good reason!
We are microscopic on our planet. The total human population could stand within a surface area of 200 square miles, whereas earth's volume is 260,000,000,000 cubic miles. Yet "our" Earth is a mere pinhead beside its sun. The sun is but one star among millions across space so vast as to defy comprehension. At jet travel speed, reaching the nearest star would take us about a million years.
In the grand scale of time and space we seem utterly insignificant. When we feel lost and lonely, who feels with us? Who sees our few, fleeting moments? Who cares about our troubles?
Sometimes, beneath the night sky, David also feels small and vulnerable. David hears the Creator's importance loudly announced by the power and order in the universe.
O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is Your Name in all the earth! You have set Your glory above the heavens! (Psalm 8:1)
David recognizes that the sheer scale of the universe seems to rule out any "importance" for humans. He asks,
When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have set in place, what is man that You are mindful of him, the son of man that You care for him? (Psalm 8:3-4)
How incredible - that the Creator of all this cares for me! Yet the very proof for God's majesty also shows our place of responsibility. God expects us to read and honor that evidence. Even little children know awe and wonder: "From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise" (Psalm 8:2). David recognizes how much God invests in each human:
You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. You made him ruler over the works of Your hands (Psalm 8:5-6)
Try an experiment: Let the magic of your favorite music play along the edges of your mind. Wonder at your ability to enjoy such ethereal beauty. Picture, in any attractive setting, the meal you find most delicious. Savor it. Appreciate the aesthetic qualities of taste, aroma, color, form and texture. Feel the warmth of embrace, the joy of eyes that meet and understand. Let the gift of "love" fill you with awe.
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Praise the Lord and His Majesty!
Romans 1:20
For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse.
Blessings,
Bruce
http://christiansoldiersonline.org
Excellent and so true
Thank you for this powerful perspective to begin my day. I needed to read this. God Bless, Shirl
I was just reading the following the other day:
"While we may feel motionless on Earth, we are actually on such a wild ride that it is difficult to comprehend. The Earth is rotating on its axis at a speed of over 1,000 mph at the equator. In addition, the Earth is revolving around the Sun at about 67,000 mph. In fact, during the course of an average human's life span, the Earth will complete 70 trips around the Sun, traveling some 41 billion miles! Furthermore, we are moving around the nucleus of the Milky Way Galaxy at about 500,000 mph and our galaxy itself is speeding along at an astounding 1.2 million mph!"
"Clearly, the scale of the known universe is so immense that it is difficult, if not impossible, to comprehend. We can better appreciate the enormity of the cosmos by scaling things down to objects and distances we can identify with. Let us reduce the Earth, which is actually some 8,000 miles in diameter, to the size of a marble. Using this new scale, the Moon would be pea size and about 16 inches away from the Earth marble. The Sun would then be the size of a four-foot beach ball and would be located about 490 feet away. The nearest star other than the Sun, Alpha Centauri, would still be about 24,000 miles away. The Milky Way galaxy would be about 55 billion miles wide. The Great Andromeda Galaxy, a member of our Local Group of galaxies, would be about 1 trillion miles away, even in this scaled-down version of the universe!"
(Scott M. Huse, pp. 103-105, "The Collapse of Evolution")
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