Big is Bigger Than I Think

I'm a sucker for romantic comedies. When Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan get together on screen, it's usually something I'll enjoy watching. One of their lesser known films, but really one of my favorites, is Joe vs.The Volcano. A memorable scene in the movie portrays Tom's character (Joe) adrift on a 'raft' (sort of) after their yacht explodes and sinks in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Meg's character is there also, but she's unconscious, and things aren't looking too hopeful. As night falls, Joe looks to the horizon, as the moon rises, and it is beautiful, and breath-takingly huge. Joe very poignantly says in a soft, awestruck voice, "Dear God, I've forgotten... how big... You are."

Periodically, I like to go to the website that has photos from the Hubble Telescope. And while photographs can only give a limited perspective, based upon the limitations of the camera's 'eye', it totally amazes me to realize how small our planet is in the scope of the universe. Our sun, which is so, so big, is really comparatively small, and just a drop in the bucket of the cosmos. The cosmic photos on the website are really beautiful, and they represent billions and billions of unique celestial creations. Yet, even with the help of Hubble and other telescopes now scanning our universe from space, scientists admit to have no idea what makes up 99% of the universe.

And God made it all. And God knows it all. And most amazingly, Psalm 147:4 tells us that He determines the number of the stars and calls them each by name. And yet he knows the number of hairs on my head... and yours, too... and He cares for us.

When we look up into the sky at night and see so many stars, we are only seeing a feeble glimse of what is out there. One of the exciting records of the Hubble Telescope is called the Hubble Deep Field, produced when the telescope photographed a tiny patch of what seemed to be almost starless space for 10 days and subsequently showed an image full of galaxies. Even though they couldn't be 'seen', they were (and are) still there.

The reason this all stirs my soul... and it really does... is because my little brain is screaming, "Dear God, I've forgotten... how big... You are." I can get so wrapped up in my 'impossibilities', and focused upon what I think I know, that I forget that there's so much more going on than my 'eye' can see. I don't need a telescope to know that He's working in ways I can't perceive, because He says so.

And that's called faith... being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. Just because I can't see it, doesn't mean it's not there.

If this piques your astronomical imagination, here's an amateur video online which talks about the Hubble Deep Field (tho' from a more secular perspective).