What the Heavens Declare
Lately I’ve been watching films from a DVD titled Hope for Creation, featuring Dr. Matthew Sleeth. Each film is about a day of creation in Genesis.
The film “Heavens” really hit me—to the point of tears hit me. Sleeth talks about what the heavens say about God. He talks about how when we stare up at the night sky, it does not take long before we feel very, very small.
When my friend, Lisa, stood at the edge of the Cliffs of Moher in Ireland, she felt small, and in this moment she went from disbelief to belief in something much bigger than herself. (There’s evangelism for you: start hosting people to overwhelming sights of nature.)
I still tease my buddy Mike about what he said when he and some friends and I went camping. At night Mike pointed his flashlight straight up and said, “Just think, guys: that light goes on forever and ever.” We thought this was a corny thing to say, but I wonder if we thought so because we lacked the capacity to take in the reality to which he directed us.
The night sky boggles my mind; it is downright unsettling. I simply cannot grasp its endlessness—stars and planets and galaxy upon galaxy. I mean, what is the point of all that space? I think some people’s yen for extraterrestrial life forms is fairly natural. It represents an attempt to make sense of the vast dark.
This immensity is disturbing and, if I let it be, also very reassuring. If God has something to do with the incalculable largeness of the universe, maybe, just maybe he has the power to help me out of whatever rut I’m in.
The sky may be intended, in fact, as a quiet but constant reminder.
The film “Heavens” really hit me—to the point of tears hit me. Sleeth talks about what the heavens say about God. He talks about how when we stare up at the night sky, it does not take long before we feel very, very small.
When my friend, Lisa, stood at the edge of the Cliffs of Moher in Ireland, she felt small, and in this moment she went from disbelief to belief in something much bigger than herself. (There’s evangelism for you: start hosting people to overwhelming sights of nature.)
I still tease my buddy Mike about what he said when he and some friends and I went camping. At night Mike pointed his flashlight straight up and said, “Just think, guys: that light goes on forever and ever.” We thought this was a corny thing to say, but I wonder if we thought so because we lacked the capacity to take in the reality to which he directed us.
The night sky boggles my mind; it is downright unsettling. I simply cannot grasp its endlessness—stars and planets and galaxy upon galaxy. I mean, what is the point of all that space? I think some people’s yen for extraterrestrial life forms is fairly natural. It represents an attempt to make sense of the vast dark.
This immensity is disturbing and, if I let it be, also very reassuring. If God has something to do with the incalculable largeness of the universe, maybe, just maybe he has the power to help me out of whatever rut I’m in.
The sky may be intended, in fact, as a quiet but constant reminder.
posted by ChadRAllen @ 5:04 AM
1 Comments:
At June 25, 2010 ,
Erin said...
Chad, you should see a documentary called "The Privileged Planet." No matter what you believe about Creation/Evolution/Intelligent Design, its assertion(that our planet is such that we, its inhabitants, can discover and know and philosophize about the immesities of the universe) was, to me, inspirational and even informed my worldview and my understanding of just how amazing God is.
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