The Face of the Deep

It's ironic how the moment you begin a new blog your body somehow knows that it is now time to stay awake at 4:50am so that you can blog and have no life lol. And here I am. I find that my mind is able to take upon itself much more expansive contemplations when I am sleep deprived yet not so much so to be peacefully slumbering. It is a mysterious thing when a man begins to contemplate his existence. As I sit here in my tiny den, in my tiny house, my mind just begins to wonder to the far reaches of space, beyond light years and stadia beyond anything I can possibly comprehend. As my journey meets full circle and rests back into my little den, I am in awe of how much there is besides us, yet in every system of thought and philosophy that I personally know, man plays a significant role in even beginning to understand the vast expanse that we are so tightly wedged into. I have an article linked here about the star called "Betelgeuse," and I will give a brief summary on its dimensions for the sake of this blog but feel free to read the entire article.

Betelgeuse can often be clearly seen at the upper edge of Orion's left shoulder, has a diameter that is approximately 1500 times the size of the Sun. Not only that, Betelgeuse has a luminosity that is 14,000 times that of the Sun at its maximum and 7,600 times the Sun's luminosity at minimum. If that isn't staggering enough, Betelgeuse is SEVENTH brightest star in the Northern Hemisphere. The outer edges of Betelgeuse extend over a trillion kilometers from the star. Because of this, it takes light almost two months just to break through the gaseous material of its outer edges in order to travel beyond the star. Every fiber in my being just wants to be able to take that in but is unable. My incredibly complex brain of some 100 billion neurons, 100 trillion synapses, with billions of impulses constantly traveling over 300 miles per hour, yet when I attempt to understand the size of one star that pales in comparison to many others in the universe, I am left void and unable to grasp even the footholds of such a thing.

There have been many people that have questioned whether or not we are the only intelligent life in the universe. Why would such a Creator of such a thing only create us on this tiny little planet of ours and leave so much of the universe uninhabitable? I have such a low view of God sometimes. Do I understand the gravity of claiming to worship a God that, according to Colossians 1:17, holds countless stars like Betelgeuse together. According to Hebrews He even does it by the Word of His power. I often have problems with the conventions of the accepted religious system. I say that because it is so easy to compartmentalize creation and the wonder of all that God is and does into something we think we completely understand. In the book of Job, Job's friends Zophar, Eliphaz, and Bildad were incredibly presumptuous in believing that Job's suffering was due to his sin and God's consequential judgment upon him. However, if God holds together the untold expanses of the universe then when He "does" one thing He does many things. I believe a misunderstanding of God has occurred both in the religious system and the secular system. We are very limited in our ability to discuss such a thing because the moment we begin speaking about the universe and about God we must reduce the vastness of it down just so that our minds can process it for the sake of speaking. When we do this we have a tendency to over-simplify something that is not simple in the least. In theological circles this is often seen with the doctrine of predestination and election. When any man ponders the universe he will quickly see that there can be no simple explanation because it is too great a thing to be reduced to simplicity.

God created the universe exactly for the purpose of showing His extremely complex and wonderful power and glory. I deem it an honor that He created me here and gave me the opportunity to worship Him for it.

I must say that I do greatly respect the men and women of science who have gone to great lengths to understand the universe and use their knowledge to better the lives of mankind. Much of what I know and what has evoked overflowing joy and worship from my heart as an offering back to God has come from the discoveries that many have devoted all their lives to studying. I am grateful for that. I have the privilege of knowing things about creation and being able to look somewhat deeper into the far reaches of God that many before me did not have. What I would really pray for, however, is that evolutionists and theologians alike could come together and discuss their views on the universe that they both most certainly are awed by. I do not think that an explanation a Creator is a theologians way of simplifying something that mankind cannot understand. Personally, when I think about God creating the universe, I do not want to leave it at that and say to myself, "Yes, now I've got it." I don't want it to be simple. I want to know more. It makes me want to know this Creator and know more of what He has done and more of what I can learn through the scientific methods that we have developed through the intelligence He has granted us. What a privilege that over myriads of history we would gradually uncover the expanse that this Creator spoke into existence in a mere six days. I would like to see secularists and theologians come to civil discussions as they realize that both sides are at least coming to the table with logical points of view.

I will probably never truly understand why God chose to create man, when He quite obviously was totally self-sustained within Himself. A power that sustains such things certainly doesn't need us. That is okay because I do not need to know. If God simply created such a grand universe to show His inexhaustible power and majesty then I praise Him for allowing me to witness it. I just fall to my knees in bewilderment and wonder and cry out from inside my heart with Job,

"What is man, that you make so much of him, and that you set your heart on him, visit him every morning and test him every moment?" ~Job 7:17-18


Praise the Yahweh that He chooses to steadfastly show such unfathomable and undeserved grace to men and delights in doing so.