By
Ada Brownell
Recently a
Christian astronomer spoke at our church. He has a giant telescope and goes out
on his driveway in the middle of the night and takes pictures of what he sees.
His photos of the universe have been published by some of the most prestigious
scientific journals in the world, including those of the National Space and
Aeronautics Administration.
Dr. Richard
Hammer is a chemistry professor at Evangel University, and his work with
astronomy began as a hobby. Now he’s teaching astronomy as well.
After showing
slide after slide of the sun, moon, stars and planets spreading endlessly
across the sky, he showed us several awesome photos and pointed out how earth
is only a little speck humankind can see through the windshield of our
technology.
He reminded us
David asked, “What is man that God is mindful of him?” (Psalm 8:4).
A whole universe,
with galaxy after galaxy, and God chose this wad of whirling dirt moving at just the right speed
with the correct amount of gravity and oxygen as the place to form a man and
woman—His creation. We all know those humans rebelled and didn’t believe if
they ate of the forbidden tree that they would die. After all, the serpent
laughed and said, “You won’t die.” But not long afterward, they stood beside a
dead son and then they died.
The last slide I remember Hammer showing was a
photo of bloody hands, representing the nail-scarred hands of Jesus coming to
deliver humankind from sin and death, and I couldn’t help but remember we are
only a speck in the universe.
That night after
we returned home I read 1 John 3: 1-3:
“How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be
called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not
know us is that it did not know him. Dear friends, now we are the children of
God and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he
appears we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Everyone who has
this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure.”
John says it all.
© March 30, 2011
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