How Big is Our God?

After a long day at the Mercyhurst athletic fields today, I came home and wanted to take a walk, just me, my iPod and the cool October evening. I walked out my front door and was taken aback by how clear the sky was. Every star was bright and brilliant. There wasn't one cloud in the sky.

The evening sky, especially stars, have always been interesting to me. It makes you realize how seemingly infinite the universe is. Think about this for a second. Most scientists estimate the number of stars in the Milky Way (just our galaxy) is 100 billion. BILLION. We can usually only see a thousand or so on a clear night such as tonight. That leaves 99,999,999,000 that we can't even see. And that's just the stars of one galaxy out of what scientists believe to be 125-500 billion galaxies. But really, that's just a shot in the dark and we'll never know. But we do know it's crazy big.

One of the largest stars we can see from Earth is called Betelgeuse. It's 425 light years away, meaning it would take us 425 years to get there if we traveled at the speed of light the entire time. And the speed of light is 670,616,629.2 miles per hour. My Escort doesn't go quite that fast. If Betelgeuse was placed at the sun, it's radius would reach half way across Jupiter. We also know it's 60,000 times brighter than our sun.

Wow. That's all I can say. If you think that's amazing, think about this. Genesis 1:16 says that God "made the stars also." Like they were an after thought...not a big deal. Psalm 147 says that God counts the number of stars and calls them by name. Isaiah 41 says the same.

What a miraculous God we have the privilege of serving. But when I look at the stars, I wonder, "what purpose do these serve?" They aren't providing a great deal of light for us at night. We don't necessarily need them to navigate anymore with GPS navigational systems at the ready. I think God created the stars as a constant reminder to us of His majesty. If my faith ever wavers, if I ever have doubt, all I need to do is look up to the sky on a clear night and I am reassured. God is always there...constantly. Is there a problem I can't overcome? Look up to the stars and it should tell you that God is certainly big enough to handle it.

What amazes me even more is this. A song by Third Day sums up 1 Kings 8:27 like this...

"All the heavens cannot hold You, Lord
How much less to dwell in me?"

But we know that the Holy Spirit lives in us. The God that created billions of stars in billions of galaxies lives in ME? That's all the reassurance I should ever need.

On my walk, I was listening to a Caedmon's Call song called "Shifting Sand." It's about a person's struggle with their faith and how it changes like the sands on a beach being hit by waves. The song says that because our faith isn't perfect, we can be sure of our salvation by standing on the grace of God, which is perfect and never changes. Still, I know I there are many times when God might be calling me for something and I ask for a sign. I just have to be sure. My faith is just too weak. Here's some lines from the song.

I've begged you for some proof
For my Thomas eyes to see
A slithering staff, a leprous hand
And lions resting lazily

A glimpse of your back-side glory
And this soaked altar going ablaze
But you know I've seen so much
I explained it away

Waters rose as my doubts reigned
My sand-castle faith, it slipped away
Found myself standing on your grace
It'd been there all the time

How great are those lyrics? Even with all of those miracles God performed in the Bible, so many times I've resisted His call because of doubt. God's grace makes up for this occasional doubt. But still, whenever my faith isn't what it should be or if I ever get wrapped up in this life, all I need is an autumn, Erie sky to be reminded of God's power and unchanging presence.