The Universe
When the night is too hot for sleeping, go outside and look up into the heavens as far as your eye can see. Is the moon a crescent or full? Can you find Orion’s belt, the North Star or the Milky Way? On a clear night it is possible to see, with the naked eye, the Andromeda Galaxy, 24 quintillion kilometers away.
The Hubble Telescope is located 547 km from the Earth and has been sending us information for 30 years. Next year the James Webb Space Telescope will orbit the Earth 1.5 million km away and be 100 times more powerful than the Hubble Telescope.
At no other time in the history of humankind has it been possible to see as far as we can see now. Never before has it been possible to know what we know now. Computers are constantly extrapolating what our brains can figure out. Technology has enabled our understanding to penetrate far from home into the vast regions of outer space.
What have we discovered with all this far- reaching equipment that supplements our own senses and faculties? We know that nothing out there has yet been discovered that compares with the throbbing, thriving vitality of life that gushes from the surface of our planet Earth.
Here, on our globe, babies giggle, dribble, waddle and become parents in their turn. Year after year fields of canola, corn, carrots and pumpkins decorate our landscape and feed our bellies. Flowers flourish, insects pollinate, rodents burrow, deer graze, hippos wallow, flamingos fly and hummingbirds hover. Earth teems with life: even viruses, only visible with a microscope, effortlessly multiply with seemingly unquenchable life.
Yes, maybe, perhaps, there is life out there, far away, somewhere beyond the universe we know. It could be. We cannot tell for sure.
However, this we do know: we are special. We own a treasure; we have been given a priceless gift. Life has been placed into our care and we are trusted. God has provided us with intelligence to discover truth, a heart to care, a will to put our ideas into action and strength implement them.
by Andrea Kidd
