How Great is our God
I received the following from a friend and added my thoughts at the bottom.
Keep scanning down......
"This really makes you feel so small... almost insignificant... not even a dot!"
Yes, this is precisely how I felt as a young college student in my Astronomy class, watching a film about our universe. I didn't just feel almost insignificant; I felt totally insignificant -- not even a dot!
Not only that, but I was terrified. Although it was silly, I wanted to huddle under my desk with fingers in my ears and wait for the danger to pass. I felt that any second ANYTHING could happen in this universe to wipe us out completely. . . and there would be no way of escaping it!
See, in my atheistic mind, there was no Supreme Being whom I could call upon. And without a Divine Controller, everything was chaotically out-of-control. I was just here, afloat on my little piece of molecular dust, in a vast, meaningless, random, and yet menacing expanse. All I could do was wait helplessly for that earth-shattering something that would come hurtling along and bump me loose into who knows what.
But, wow, what a difference a day makes -- the day God revealed Himself to me! That day, everything changed! Suddenly, notwithstanding all the marvels, mysteries, and menaces, my universe had order.
Now, amid the limitless and mind-boggling mysteries of the universe, one amazes me most: How the transcendent God who made it all can love and cherish us! With the Psalmist, we can ask, "What are human beings that you are mindful of them"? But the answer is unfathomable. It's enough to realize He has chosen us as His own and that He created our little planet with passionate love in His heart.
If only we would all respond to God's love and walk in it, this world could be the way He intended. But most refuse Him, and because of that, the world suffers intensifying anguish. (So, may I ask, what ever happened to the bright humanistic visions of a utopian world right around the corner? Weren't science and technology going to solve every ill?!!)
Some will disagree, but I believe with all my heart that the end of this age is near. Jesus will return to take His people to His eternal Home -- a perfect place prepared for us -- somewhere beyond the sphere of Jupiter, Pollux, or Antares; somewhere beyond our universe; somewhere even beyond the wildest stretch of our imaginations.
What an amazing God; what amazing hope He gives His people. Because of that hope, I/we can have confidence in life. We are not meaningless byproducts of some primordial ooze on an insignificant little speck of an accidental planet among billions of others. Rather, we are people of purpose, of divine destiny, even children of the God who is Master and Sustainer of it all. You are outrageously significant to God. Wow, let THAT sink in a while!
And while you're letting that sink in, ponder this:
Just to put the above photos in some kind of perspective, Antares, called a supergiant, is one of perhaps 100 billion stars in our galaxy (the Milky Way). Now, add to this the belief of scientists, based on Hubble findings, that the Milky Way is just one of perhaps 500 billion galaxies! Is your mind boggled yet?
Let's worship our awesome God, the Creator of all things, the King of the entire universe!
How great is our God, sing with me,
How great is our God, all will see,
How great, how great is our God . . . ." (Chris Tomlin)
He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, and its people are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavens like a canopy, and spreads them out like a tent to live in. . . . To whom will you compare me? Or who is my equal?" says the Holy One. Lift your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one, and calls them each by name. Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing. -- Isaiah 40:22, 25-26
He determines the number of the stars and calls them each by name. Great is our Lord and mighty in power; his understanding has no limit. . . . Praise the LORD. Praise the LORD from the heavens, praise him in the heights above. Praise him, all his angels, praise him, all his heavenly hosts. Praise him, sun and moon, praise him, all you shining stars. Praise him, you highest heavens and you waters above the skies. Let them praise the name of the LORD, for he commanded and they were created. He set them in place for ever and ever; he gave a decree that will never pass away. -- Psalms 147:4-5, 148:1-6
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? You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. -- Psalm 8:3-5
