How to Cure a Cosmic Headache

 

Thursday, June 4, 2020

Psalm 8:1-9

O Lord, our Lord, your majestic name fills the earth!  Your glory is higher than the heavens.  You have taught children and infants to tell of your strength, silencing your enemies and all who oppose you.  When I look at the night sky and see the work of your fingers—the moon and the stars you set in place—what are mere mortals that you should think about them, human beings that you should care for them?  Yet you made them only a little lower than God and crowned them with glory and honor.  You gave them charge of everything you made, putting all things under their authority—the flocks and the herds and all the wild animals, the birds in the sky, the fish in the sea, and everything that swims the ocean currents.  O Lord, our Lord, your majestic name fills the earth!

Your head can hurt (a lot) when you start thinking of eternity and the vastness of creation.  How can you wrap your mere mortal mind around a universe which, from the moment it was created, has been expanding at a blinding rate of about 4 million miles a day.  What’s interesting to me is how much impartial, non-agenda-driven science corroborates Scripture, as opposed to stilted pseudo-science, which attempts to disprove God’s presence.  Sometimes the connections are amazing.  In the case of the Big Bang, scientists of integrity have opined that the universe appeared all at once.  In the following scientific explanation it not only says that, but also tacitly affirms the wording of Scripture, that God created ex-nihilo; meaning there wasn’t anything in existance until God spoke it into being:

The universe did not expand into space, as space did not exist before the universe, according to NASA.  Instead, it is better to think of the Big Bang as the simultaneous appearance of space everywhere in the universe.  The universe has not expanded from any one spot since the Big Bang — rather, space itself has been stretching, and carrying matter with it.[1]

Nothing existed; God spoke; everything existed and is growing.  How majestic, and consistent with let there be…and there was…and is…and ever shall be!

If there is any empirical evidence to cure the kind of cosmic headache you get when you try to expain-away God, this is it; believe Scripture, and watch the day’s events, not through the eyes and ears of CNN and 21^st century full of itself culture, but the eyes of one who has the balcony seat and sees more than just the big picture, but also Who sees the beginning from the end!

Let’s Pray Together:

Father, You are majestic, all-seeing, all-knowing, and all-powerful.  How excellent is Your name!  And though Your glory overspreads and oversees the entirety of Your expanding universe, you have chosen to be mindful of us.  As the heavens declare Your glory, Your Son, Jesus declares Your mercy and grace.

For You Today

It’s my prayer that, having intentionally drawn your attention to the infinite Lord, creator of a universe none of us can begin to comprehend, I will have messed with your comfort zone in which you imagine you have possessions, property, power, or whatever you consider your treasure.  I pray I’ve meddled enough, so as to plant in your soul the thought of letting go of all of it, in favor of praising Eternal God, the one who can cure a cosmic headache!

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road today.  Have a blessed day!

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Title Image:  Space.com  Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation©

For other posts on Psalm 8 see Wondering About the Big Stuff Part 1 and Part 2 and Part 3  and  We Mortals

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[1] Our Expanding Universe: Age, History & Other Facts

Lenten Walk - Part 24

[1]

Tuesday, March 20, 2018

This is what the Lord says—Israel’s King and Redeemer, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies:  “I am the First and the Last; there is no other God.  Who is like me?  Let him step forward and prove to you his power.  Let him do as I have done since ancient times when I established a people and explained its future.  Do not tremble; do not be afraid.  Did I not proclaim my purposes for you long ago?  You are my witnesses—is there any other God?  No! There is no other Rock—not one!”  

Isaiah 44:6-8^(NLT)

Three times[2] in the book that bears Isaiah’s name Almighty God delclares that He alone is first and last.  As an echo we hear the same phrase three times[3] in John’s Revelation, the final time near the very end of Scripture:

I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.”  

Revelation 22:13^(NLT)

There are several significant attachments to this phrase, all of them so important to our theology…why and what we believe about God.  He is first and last in the sense that He is the Creator, but also sustainer.  He was before and He holds it all together, and will be there to restore His creation to glory at the end of time.  Paul gives us this synopsis:

Christ is the visible image of the invisible God.  He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation, for through him God created everything in the heavenly realms and on earth.  He made the things we can see and the things we can’t see—such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world.  Everything was created through him and for him.  He existed before anything else, and he holds all creation together.  

Colossians 1:15-17^(NLT)

Another significance of this phrase first and last is the idea of preeminence; God was not only the first in the sense of time, but also in the matter of imporance.  As Isaiah records, God isn’t just the most important among all the gods you might hear about; Jehovah is the ONLY God.

One other thought about first and last, which sums up why we can hardly claim we comprehend the vastness of the nature and character of this unseen eternal One, is that He is before time and space, and exists above that realm in which we humans dwell.  As such, God knows the beginnings and endings of all things.  It is like our universe is one very long parade, and God has a drone’s perspective of the banners at the beginning of the parade, and the sweepers after the procession…all at the same time.

For You Today

Lent is that dark time inbetween. 

It is when we turn a corner from Jesus demonstrating his power over what He created, magnificent miracles and heartening sermons…to the shadow of a cross.  In this 40 days of wandering in the wilderness of inbetween, it is important to remember that we are within time and space.  We cannot yet comprehend what life is like above this realm…we can only imagine, as John wrote:

Dear friends, we are already God’s children, but he has not yet shown us what we will be like when Christ appears.  But we do know that we will be like him, for we will see him as he really is.  

1 John 3:2^(NLT)

This Lenten promise reminds us that He not only was first, creating and breathing life into us; God is also the last, standing ready to extend that life with Him in eternity. 

In Lent…inbetween…it is enough to know that we will know!

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day.

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[1] Title Image:  Courtesy of Pixabay.com

[2] Isaiah 41:4, 44:6, 48:12

[3] Revelation 1:17, 2:8, 22:13