Look up

So, browsing through Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD), I've come across some amazingly beautiful pictures of our incredible universe. Those pictures got me retracing a thought that had been thought last week. One of the pictures is of a sunset on Mars, taken by the Mars Exploration Rover. A sunset that we would never see were it not for the rover, (though that can be said about most of the pictures on the website; we'd never see them unless we had such telescopes). So, if we'd never see them, why do they happen? Ideas such as the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle would len to the concept that if we never saw it happen, then it didn't happen. Well, that's foolish, and rather close-minded, selfish, stupid, and prideful. See, we assume that something isn't important unless it's near us: drought in a state on the other side of the country; starving children in Africa; the view of the setting sun on a completely different planet.

Now, I'm not suggesting that watching a Martian sunset is more important than feeding those children in Africa, but I would say that something like that is even further from our mind than the necessity for goodwill in impoverished countries, which I say is somewhat unfortunate and sad.

I think that this may turn into me making an argument that can be grossly taken out of context, and maybe somewhat selfish-sounding, but here I go.

Let me begin to challenge you and maybe open up your mind. Please? Well, think about this: I think that just as much as we feed starving children in wherever, we should think of galactic landscape, lunar sunsets, the burning out of a star in NGC1313 (a spiral galaxy), flights of comets outside of our solar system, or the sight of matter being spaghettified into a black hole?

Why?

Because we can't do a single thing about such events. If we didn't see them happen, they still happened, even if we didn't know about them. They are independent of us. A star 2000 lightyears away (I hope that you would take a minute to ponder such size and distance) is not concerned with the two tests that I have Thursday, for which I've neglected to study. We are infinitely small. Infinitely meaningless, that is, in the context of supernovae, nebulae, comets, event horizons, etc etc etc... That's exactly the reason we should remember those things: we had nothing to do with their occurrence! It shows that it is not about us, but about the One who created it. The One who has the view from atop Mons Olympus of every Martian sunset and sunrise; the One who gives the glorious pigments to the dust clouds in NGC 253; the One who alone gets to marvel at the awesome sight of matter being reduced to quarks as it is drained into a black hole; the very One from whose Mind such things were produced.

They SHOUT to His glory!

As does feeding starving children (only an example to all that Christ called us to do). But, they're indeed different. See, we often see such actions as something we've done, or this universe as being about us. Wrong wrong wrong wrong wroooooooong. They weren't done by us, or even really for us. They are done, and occur, for His glory. Period.

For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities--all things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. (Colossians 1:13-17)

The stars remind us. Listen to them. They know. The mountains do as well. Seek their advice. Turn to the One at whom they gaze. They've been here far longer than you. Seas roll at the mention of His Name. Pay attention. Look upward. (Romans 1)