Creation Declares His Glory

Many years ago my dad gave me a copy of a paperback book by J. B. Phillips, “Your God is Too Small.” (J.B. Phillips , a Bible scholar and preacher, paraphrased the New Testament and  wrote this book, published in 1953.) The book is a Christian classic and bestseller. The premise of the book is that many people have a very small view of our incredibly enormous God. I often like to take a few moments and review the evidence for God based on his creation.  I will share with you a little of that here.

Psalm 19:1-4 says, “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge. They have no speech, they use no words; no sound is heard from them. Yet their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world. In the heavens God has pitched a tent for the sun.” Scripture is clear, the heavens are a billboard, announcing the glory of God.  In Colossians 1:16-17, Paul writes, “For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers 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.” Our God is both the creator and sustainer of the amazing creation. 

The earth on which we reside has ideal conditions for human and plant life, provided by our God. The moon exerts just the right gravitational pull on the earth so that it spins on a 23.5 degree tilt on its axis.  More or less, and we would either freeze or burn up. The earth has exactly the right oxygen levels. If the oxygen level is decreased by even a few percent and we would not be able to breathe.   

Consider the heavens. Out in the bush of Zimbabwe there is no light pollution.  You feel like you are able to see layers and layers of stars. This sight caused my friend, Russ Herr, to gaze at the heavens from  the middle of an African field and sing, “He’s got the whole world in his hands.” Astronomers say that a person is capable of seeing 9,096 stars with the naked eye. Scientists estimate that there are 70,000 million million million (or 70 sextillion) stars in the sky. Just the sheer numbers are unfathomable. 

In April of 1990, the Hubble Space Telescope was unveiled, and a whole new era of seeing the wonders of God’s handiwork began. At 353 miles above the earth’s surface, Hubble circles the globe once every 97 minutes. A few things we have learned from this telescope: There are an estimated 350,000,000,000 galaxies.  The Hubble Telescope is sending back faint, infrared images of galaxies we are just discovering, estimated at 12 billion light years away. (Light travels at 186,282 miles per second. A beam of light can circle the Earth seven times in one second. A light year is the distance that light can travel going nonstop for 365 days, or 5.8 trillion miles.)  All of this was created in a single moment with a single word from the lips of our God. 

In order to appreciate the vastness of the heavens, some perspective on distance is also helpful. The distance between the earth and the Sun is 93 million miles. The distance from the Sun to the next closest star, Proxima Centauri, is 4.3 light years. (If you traveled on the Concorde from the Sun to Proxima Centauri, it would take 2 million years to make the journey.) The Milky Way Galaxy, where we reside, is 120,000 light years across and 1,000 light years thick. These distances are amazingly vast.                  

All of this information is a call to worship.  Creation is a reminder of God’s power, enormity and significance.  It also accentuates our frailty, littleness and insignificance. It is a call to worship, but, it is more.  We soon realize it is not farfetched that a God with this level of power and creativity is also holy, eternal, all-knowing, and completely just and fair. He is awesome, infinitely great and wise. It is more than just marveling at God’s creative abilities.

J.D. Greear writes, “And see, here’s the thing: the universe, as expansive as it is, still has its limits. It is finite. God is eternal. He exists outside the farthest expanses of our universe, holding it, as Isaiah says, in the palm of his hand. The reality of God’s immensity must shape the way we approach him and how we respond to him when he speaks to us.”  Although I consistently fall short, I monitor myself daily to be certain that I respond to our great God with the absolute obedience that he deserves.

And, how does it make us feel to know that this Holy God loves us as his unique creation? He sees our fears, is aware of our wrongs, feels our struggles, understands our questions and doubts and evaluates our motives and intentions. He is greater than our greatest prayer and longer than our longest step of faith.  

I was discussing all of this with Diane.  Shame on me when I feel reluctant to trust the God of the universe with the problems of my life. The beautiful truth is that the One who calls out the stars, and names them one by one, also knows each of us by name. Never count him out. Never sell him short. He is greater than the enormity of the universe and at the same time cares about the most minute details of our lives.