| “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament showeth His handywork” (Psalm 19:1). |
| It is a marvelous sight to be able to go out on a clear night and look at the sky. If you can get some distance away from a city or town, it is even better, for then the city lights do not obscure the night sky, and the stars are easier to see. In the South Island of New Zealand, authorities have established what is called the “Dark Sky Reserve,” which is a large area of 4300 square kilometers (about 1650 square miles), reserved for viewing the night sky. In this area, any artificial lighting is very carefully controlled so that the stars can be seen at their brightest. Those who are willing to make the trip there can take special tours at night to view the stars and planets. |
| During the last fifty years or so, man has discovered much more about the universe than was previously known, but there is still much that we do not know. But what we do know does indeed show the glory of God. We may think our earth is large, and indeed it is, but the sun is much larger. If the sun were hollow, and you began to try and fill it up by placing one earth after another into it, the sun would hold about one million earths. This means that if you were to place one earth into the sun every second, and worked for twelve hours every day, it would take you more than 23 days to fill that sun with earths! |
| However, there are stars in the universe much larger than our sun that warms us. There is a star called UY Scuti that is so large that it has a volume approximately 5 billion times that of the sun! Think of how many earths that star could hold! It would take more than your lifetime to fill it! Of course these measurements are not exact, as star dust and other things floating about in space sometimes make it hard to get accurate measurements, especially of stars that are thousands of “light years” away from us. (The term “light year” is used to measure distance in space, and is the distance traveled by light in a year. Since light travels at 300,000 kilometers per second (186,000 miles per second), a light year is a long way!) But all this gives us an idea of how big the universe is. |
| We might ask, Why did God bother to create a universe so large? What is the purpose of it, since no other star or planet has ever been found that would be suitable for people to live on? I believe that the answer is in our verse for today. God wanted to display His glory in what He created, and so He formed a universe so large and complicated that man has not yet reached the end of it. In fact, there is good evidence today that the universe is actually getting bigger! |
| We can understand something of God’s power and glory when we see the stars in the heavens, and realize that He created all this, simply by calling it into existence. And not only did He create it, but He maintains it, so that it functions in an orderly way. The Bible says concerning the Lord Jesus, “All things subsist together by Him” (Colossians 1:17 JND). God intended that anyone who looked at the heavens would realize that He (God) existed, and would want to know more about Him. |
