Gazing Skyward
The darker the night the better we can see the stars, all of them vast distances away — some, hundreds of trillions of miles away. King David enjoyed gazing at them and wrote: “The heavens declare the glory of God.” Psalm 19:11<<To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David.>> The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament showeth his handywork. (Psalm 19:1). Don’t you enjoy them, too?
How strange that some people try to figure out how the starry skies came into being when the answer is found in many places in the Bible, one of which says, “The worlds [stars] were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.” Hebrews 11:33Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear. (Hebrews 11:3). The stars came into being at God’s command!
Astronomers admit they have not been able to find any end to the starry skies and are increasingly amazed at what they discover with modern instruments. They report that the galaxy called the Milky Way (of which our world is a very tiny part) has an estimated 200 billion stars in it, and that there are another 800 million galaxies probably more — with a total number of stars so large that it is impossible for our minds to grasp the number. Yet, as our opening Bible verse tells us, God knows the exact number of stars. And even more amazing, He has a name for each one of them! Actually, there is no point in our trying to count them, for God Himself declared, “The host of heaven cannot be numbered [by man].” Jeremiah 33:2222As the host of heaven cannot be numbered, neither the sand of the sea measured: so will I multiply the seed of David my servant, and the Levites that minister unto me. (Jeremiah 33:22). We are also told that “one star differeth from another star in glory [beauty].” 1 Corinthians 15:4141There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory. (1 Corinthians 15:41). No two are alike. What pleasure our blessed God must have had when He stretched “out the heavens like a curtain.” Psalm 104:22Who coverest thyself with light as with a garment: who stretchest out the heavens like a curtain: (Psalm 104:2).
Here is an example of how the Creator made each star different from all others. Earth’s diameter is 7926 miles, compared with the star Betelgeuse’s diameter of 215,000,000 miles, and the star Aurigae’s diameter of 390,000,000 miles. Our sun, over 92,000,000 miles away from Earth, is 860,000 miles in diameter, or more than 100 times Earth’s size. If we were to compare others within reach of telescopes, we would be astounded to discover what great differences the Creator has made in all of them.
It has been calculated that, if it were possible, our fastest spaceship traveling from Earth would take 40,000 years to reach the star known as Alpha Centaura, which is 26,000,000,000,000 (26 trillion) miles away from us. This certainly makes our present space shuttle explorations seem terribly puny!
Yet, for all these great distances which boggle the minds of astronomers, the Creator has each heavenly body under His constant gaze and keeps each one in its proper orbit. Only He could make them, place them in their orbits in space, and keep them in order. As the hymn sung by Sunday school children states so well, “Isn’t He wonderful!”
ML 03/25/1990