"Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ" (I Corinthians 11:1)
The ST. PAUL SCHOOL (with Frank Eiklor, Eileen Young and Walter and Cecilia Contreras)

THE UNIVERSE AND YOU

(HOW DID IT GET THERE?)

I love to go to observatories where men and women study the heavens in awe and wonder. Incredible photos attempt to describe the indescribable-to comprehend the incomprehensible. We wrote of some of those discoveries in the previous lesson. A universe that equals billions of stars in countless galaxies. We live in just one, the Milky Way, where our solar system is an insignificant part and our earth a grain of sand by comparison.

And that is just one galaxy. There may be billions-trillions-more, not just stars, but entire galaxies? And remember, it would take you and me 150,000 years to just cross our galaxy at the speed of light-186,000 miles a second! Visit an observatory and you will see science humbled as astronomers describe the size of the universe with one word: "UNKNOWN".

But God is not unknown. He has been explored and experienced through Jesus Christ by millions of people. He delights in telling us how the universe, galaxies, stars, solar system, earth and you and me got here. He placed the answers in the eternal Scriptures-the Bible-that will outlast the universe.

"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." There could be no better way to introduce Himself to mankind than with Genesis 1:1. Then we learn in John 1:1-3 that the One who visited this planet to redeem His broken creatures is the same one who spoke the universe into being. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him; and without Him was not anything made that was made."

Wow! So unlike the false and invented gods who are always pictured as part of the universe, the true and living God is outside of it. The vast universe is only like a particle of dust before God in His greatness.

How did it all get here? The same God who first spoke through the Hebrew prophets "has in these last days spoken unto us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, BY WHOM ALSO HE MADE THE WORLDS." (Hebrews 1:2) And again, "...the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear". (Hebrews 11:3)

And Isaiah? He must have been terrified-awestruck-as he heard God speak of "the circle of the earth" (2700 years ago, which our "flat earth" ancestors refused to believe until faced with scientific fact) and how our Creator calls each star by name and guides them in their orbits. No wonder He asked Israel-and asks us today-"To whom then will you liken Me, or shall I be equal? saith the Holy One." (Read Isaiah chapter 40-it's incredible!")

How did it all begin? I heard the story of how the greatest and wisest men climbed the mountain of knowledge, determined to learn the answers to the origin of the universe and the mystery of how life began. When, exhausted, they finally arrived at the top, they found a humble theologian sitting there relaxed and reading a book. He had been there all along-and the Book was open at Genesis chapter one!

(MORE IN OUR NEXT STUDY)