Star Gazing

Over the previous three days we have been able to share a spot of star gazing centered on Jodrell Bank Radio Telescope near Macclesfield, Cheshire. The programmes introduced us to basic star identification and then began to explain some of the amazing facts about the universe in which we find ourselves. We learned that some of the stars we see in the night sky actually transmitted the light we see many billions of light years ago. So when we look at the night sky we are seeing history and not the present.

Every winter I have looked at the southern sky and marvelled at the great constellation of Orion, along whose "belt" a line of sight takes us to Sirius, the dog star, brightest star we see. The awesome universe is breath taking and often overpowers us because we struggle to find words adequate enough to describe it. It makes us feel incredibly small and very insignificant.

A former president of the USA used to entertain a friend at dinner and would lead him out of the White House to look at the stars. Pointing to the galaxy of Andromeda (pictured at the head of this post) he would say, "That is the great Spiral Galaxy of Andromeda which is approximately the same size and shape of our own galaxy, the Milky Way. It is two and a half million light years away but is the nearest galaxy to us. Now that we are down to size let's have dinner!"

It is a fact that in the entire scheme of things we humans are incredibly small. What all Christians agree is that God is the creator of all things. We may not all agree that it was done in six days and in the manner set out in Genesis. However, the point of agreement is that God is our great creator. Look at the heavens and see the immense canopy of lights all set there in dependence on each other. Limit your thoughts, if you like, to the activity of our star, the Sun, and its planets in orbit around it. On earth we are totally dependent upon a continuing activity of nuclear fusion of the gases of the Sun. This is our energy source and it is set to continue for millions of years. Prehistoric people realised this and worshipped the Sun. We see their ancient religious sites aligned to the Summer Solstice and find their votive offerings in waterways - thanks for water by which they lived under the energy of the Sun. These people were no fools. However little they understood, they knew from whence came their life!

And so we, today, can look out into the universe and marvel at the creativity of God. However this great action was contrived it certainly had a snowball effect. Like a stone thrown into a pond, making ripples, so far off activity has impact right across creation. It may be true that we have been ingenious in sending men to the surface of the moon but we are not even scratching the surface of creation in doing so. We are surrounded by a great mystery, the mystery of God. As we consider everything God made we ask the perpetual question, "Why?"

We have just passed through Christmas once more. It is a time when we celebrate and think about God's intervention through Jesus. In the birth of Jesus we see the world given a chance. We see another picture which is of God throwing a pebble into the pond of life to see the ripple effect and arrive at a target - salvation. I feel that God had, by the year 1AD, seen that the chance he had offered the world had been squandered, so he gave us a second chance and it is this second chance that we are preaching every day.

Despite being so small in creation, we are still incredibly well equipped to go out and make a difference in the name of Jesus. We were not simply created as animals, rather we were given feelings, emotions and so on in order that we could respond and give the world the God who created it in the name of Jesus. I am saying here that we are more than well equipped to perform our task. God has,through Jesus, given us everything we need to succeed in his service. May we respond and make the difference that is needed.