The sun is huge. About 1 million earths will fit into the sun. The sun is a star. Many stars are even larger than the sun. The star Betelgeuse is so big that 35 million suns like ours will fit therein. Our sun is one in about 300 000 million stars in just our group of stars, called a galaxy. There are still 100 000’s of millions of galaxies, each with 100 000’s of millions of stars. These galaxies are moving further and further apart. Say we could count the stars in the universe at 1 million per second – after one minute we would have counted 60 million. To count the currently estimated total number of stars would take about 500 million years.
The photo shows one of the “nearby” galaxies, Andromeda, taken with a powerful telescope. Light moves very fast. If light could move in a circle around the earth it would move 7½ times around the earth in 1 second. Andromeda is so remote that its light takes 2,2 million years to reach the earth.
David probably spent many a night with his sheep, contemplating the wonder of God’s creation, before writing the following: O LORD, our Lord, your greatness is seen in all the world! Your praise reaches up to the heavens; … When I look at the sky, which you have made, at the moon and the stars, which you set in their places, what are human beings, that you think of them; mere mortals, that you care for them? Yet you made them inferior only to yourself; you crowned them with glory and honor. … O LORD, our Lord, your greatness is seen in all the world! (Ps. 8:1-9).
David concludes that God created it all, because only God could have done it. He then also realizes how insignificant and small human beings are in comparison with the greatness of the creation. But then David sings about God’s great love for human beings. To Him we are more valuable than Betelgeuse and all the stars. That’s what God thinks of human beings. We were created in God’s image, as his representative (Gen. 1:26). This image of God was damaged by sin but restored through what Jesus has done when He died on the cross for our sake.
The universe is so large, we cannot imagine its size. It reveals God’s greatness to us. How clearly the sky reveals God’s glory! How plainly it shows what he has done! Each day announces it to the following day; each night repeats it to the next. No speech or words are used, no sound is heard; yet their message goes out to all the world and is heard to the ends of the earth. God made a home in the sky for the sun; it comes out in the morning like a happy bridegroom, like an athlete eager to run a race. The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands (Ps. 19.1 – 5).
Most amazing is, however, the fact that God not only speaks to us through his creation. He came Himself to speak to us when He descended to live amongst us in Jesus Christ, the Word: The Word became a human being and, full of grace and truth, lived among us. We saw his glory, the glory which he received as the Father’s only Son (John 1:14). That’s what God thinks of human beings.
Our heavenly Father, we thank You, that You speak to us through your creation. But even more, that You came to speak to us through Jesus Christ. Amen
Free email and/or WhatsApp messages weekly from gerberning@gmail.com. Also weekly on the website of the Christian Literature Fund https://clf.co.za/devotionals/. Gert Berning at https://sites.google.com/view/Gert-berning-sites and on Youtube.
