Expand Your Thinking

All you have to do to discover the glory of God is to take a look around you. The world in which you live shouts to you about the glory of God. Nature screams, that it was made by an infinite God. Then go out at night, especially to a place not surrounded by city lights, and look above at all the stars and stellar beams of light. The mere vastness of the entire universe is nothing short of mind-boggling.

To give you a little insight into my life, when I was a teenager I had a telescope and spent hours looking at the moon, planets, and stars. I thought of becoming an astronomer, but then I realized all my work would be at night. I would be a complete stranger to all my friends, as I would have a night job and them a day job. Thus, I changed my major. The galaxy has always intrigued me and still does to this day. It is a vast, beautiful, interesting display of God’s glory.

Think for a second or two about just how vast an expanse our universe really is. Paul Lee Tan puts it this way, “Imagine that the thickness of a page of paper is the distance from the earth to the sun (93 million miles). The distance to the nearest star (4 ½ light years) would be a 71 foot-high shelf of paper. And the diameter of our own galaxy (100,000 light years) is a 310 mile stack of paper, while the edge of the known universe is a pile of paper one-third of the way to the sun (31 million miles).” Wow! Put into that perspective it makes the size of the universe even that more incomprehensible.   In simple terms, the universe in which you and I live is huge to say the least.

Why did God make such a vast and impressive universe? The key is given in Psalm 19:1, “The heavens are telling of the glory of God; and their expanse is declaring the work of His hands.” Make no doubt about it; the universe was made to give God the glory as one realizes that God, Himself, created the universe. This universe was not made to impress you. It was made to shout from the mountaintops the glory of God.

Next time you touch a piece of paper; just remember the vastness of the universe that screams the making of it was to give God glory. Jesus Christ’s coming, death, and resurrection are the epitome of God’s glory. Worship the Lord Jesus Christ today in all of His glory!!