My son set up the new telescope in the middle of our backyard. Using the small finder scope with crosshairs in it that was attached to the barrel of the larger, more powerful telescope, he pointed it towards the southern night sky and focused it on what looked like the brightest star in the sky. Only it wasn’t a star; it was the planet Jupiter.
After a few micro-adjustments he said, “Here Dad, quick, look; I’ve got Jupiter in view on the telescope.”
Careful not to bump the telescope which was on a tripod, I looked through the eyepiece and saw the huge planet Jupiter and its four visible moons, the same moons the astronomer Galileo saw nearly 400 years ago.
Jupiter looked like a circle of light maybe a quarter of an inch in diameter. It was mostly shades of gray, but mixed in the grays I could see the faintest hints of color. The moons were clearly visible too. They were much smaller little orbs circling the planet.
I had only looked for a few seconds at the planet before it moved out of the field of vision.
“Wow! That moves fast,” I told my son. “I only had a few seconds to look at it and it disappeared from view.”
“That’s because the planets are travelling incredibly fast through space,” he said.
Using the spotter telescope, he got the planet in view a few more times for some good looks for both of us.
Before my son showed me, I never realized that this bright speck of light was not a star but a planet. The amazing thing about seeing Jupiter and its four moons was how fast they travelled. I guess it was no more than twenty or thirty seconds before the planet disappeared off the field of view of the telescope. This was surprising, because when looked at with the naked eye, the planet doesn’t look like it’s moving at all.
Life Is Short
Looking at Jupiter in the telescope got me thinking about the shortness of life. You know when you are caught up in the moment, time almost seems to stand still. Remember what it was like to be a kid at the end of the school day, and how slowly time moved? But someone who views things from a distance would say time moves much faster. I suppose if it were possible and you were to ask a person who is in eternity how fast life on earth went by, they would probably say it raced by. They may even say life on earth seemed no more than a few seconds before it was over and eternity began.
The prophet Isaiah knew about the shortness of life and wrote, “Seek ye the Lord while He may be found, call ye upon Him while He is near” (Isaiah 55:66Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near: (Isaiah 55:6)). He knew after this life was over it would be forever too late to seek the Lord, and those who never sought Him would be sent away to a lost eternity.
Time flies. Don’t put off getting right with God. If you do, you may find it is forever too late.
How many people in hell at this moment are there because they thought they had time enough to repent, only to discover that time moved more swiftly than they thought.
Like the planet Jupiter and its moons swiftly passing out of the field of view of the telescope, our lives will quickly pass out of this scene and into eternity. Where will you be? Will you be with the Lord who loved you and gave His life for you? Or will you pass out of this life and go into the darkness of a lost eternity along with all those who remained in their sins? The choice is yours, but know this: You don’t have endless time to make that choice! Don’t delay. Choose Christ!