“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.” ~ Genesis 1:1-3

Atheism...

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Look up on a starry night and no amount of atheistic nor agnostic gobbledygook can mar the brilliance of the whole of Creation. The more we think we know, the more our Creator-God unveils to us, and in stunning detail. Just as every planet in the solar system orbits the sun, so every star in the Milky Way orbits the big black hole at our galaxy’s center. But how far out does the Milky Way extend? One star is about 890,000 light-years from Earth in the constellation Pisces – 33 times farther from the Milky Way’s center than we are and well beyond the edge of the galactic disk. If the star in Pisces revolves on a circular path as fast as we do, it takes some 8 billion years to complete a single orbit around the galaxy.

Those numbers alone should keep us all very humble. This is just one galaxy we live in, among billions and billions of others. “Stars” we call them. Remember when you look up on a starry night, to figure out and wonder just how long and far the light from them has traveled in order for us to see it. Cosmic revelation if ever there was one. As God declared to Abraham, the night he took him outside to look up:

“And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be. And he believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness.” ~ Genesis 15:5-6

Milky Way...

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 “Look up on a starry night, and you will see the majesty and power of an infinite Creator.” ~ Billy Graham, “The Journey”, 2006

 

In my quiet time for the past week or so, I have been in the book of Matthew, and as I was exploring this piece on Creation, I was drawn back to Matthew 6:28-29 when Christ put it all in perspective: “And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.” 

Imagine if you will, how God cares for each and every one of us far more than he does for the beautiful things of Creation into which he invested so much. From my extensive stack of archives, I came across this from 2009, not so much about the wonder and beauty of the heavens, but right here under our noses on Earth:

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Consider a flower – any flower; it is one of the masterpieces of God’s creation. Hidden within a flower – even in a nameless wildflower blooming in a field – we can easily discover the Creator’s will and purpose. To see a flower alive and growing to perfection is truly to witness a miracle … The miracle of God’s Creation is infinite, transcending and defying any human description. Even a piece of art produced by the greatest artist in the world cannot compare to a cluster of living wildflowers. Even in creating a single insignificant flower, God the Creator opens the way for it to realize harmony in itself while contributing to the interdependence and mutual prosperity of the entirety of Creation. Given that this is so, how much greater is the stature of we human beings, whom God created as His children, His eternal partners of love, and His heirs?

Each and every one of the millions of different kinds of flowers in full bloom maintains its dignity as an individual embodiment of truth under the majestic principle of creation.  They create harmony in Nature and abide by the laws of interdependence and mutual prosperity.  Likewise, each and every human has Heaven’s blessing and grace to seek harmony, peace, freedom and happiness, and to find eternal life.  Heaven has bestowed on each person the life and characteristics of an individual being.

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Click on pic to enlarge…

God is the very same God who adjured to Job “He stretcheth out the north over the empty place, and hangeth the earth upon nothing” and to Isaiah he revealed “Have ye not known? have ye not heard? hath it not been told you from the beginning? have ye not understood from the foundations of the earth? It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in: Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding.” ~ Job 26:7; Isaiah 40:21-22, 28

“The Bible is the one book which reveals the Creator to the creature He created! No other book that man has conceived can make that statement and support it with fact.”  ~ Billy Graham, “How To Be Born Again” 1977

“So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.” ~ Psalm 90:12 … You can learn more about Marty Goetz right here …

 

Sourced from Scientific American/American Digest/Personal archives