The galaxy and solar system in which you live is full of wonder and awe. When you get a chance, go view the sky in a secluded place away from city lights. Look upward and observe the sky in all of its wonder and amazement. It is full of beautiful stars and a few planets that you can see with the naked eye.
As a child I was absolutely amazed with the celestial bodies I could see when I visited my relatives that lived out in the country. As I approached my teenage years, that fascination became even more pronounced. When I thought of what career I would spend my life doing, being an astronomer was carefully considered. The fact that I would work all night and sleep in the daytime, while my family and friends would sleep in the night time, steered me away from that career.
To this day, I am fascinated by those heavenly bodies. For you to gain an understanding of just how vast our galaxy is, let me share a little information about it with you. Imagine that the thickness of a page of paper in a book 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 stack of paper, while the edge of the known universe is more than a pile of paper one-third of the way to the sun (31 million miles). Wow! Now, that is astonishing!
The Holy Bible talks about the coming of Jesus Christ as the Messiah and Savior of the world in much the same manner. It makes an astonishing statement of Him in relation to the heavenly bodies: “I see Him, but not now; I behold Him, but not near; A star shall come forth from Jacob…” (Numbers 24:17). Yes, that verse compares the coming of Jesus with the magnificence of the appearance of a star.
Stop! I mean, really stop! And let the astonishment of magnificence of Jesus Christ fill your soul. Let today be a fresh beginning for you in your relationship to Him! Let His magnificence shine through you each and every day!
