Monday, April 16, 2012

Seeing Jesus in the Cosmos

"What is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?" -Psalm 8:4



What a humbling perspective. Not long ago the pastor of my church (Dr. James MacDonald) spoke about the utter vastness of the universe and how perhaps God created it to be as large it is to demonstrate how great He is and how very small we are. Amen. It's amazing that such a great God would be mindful of us - let alone love us enough to die for us.

So before the cancer hit a good friend of mine gave me an article from Scientific American called "The Origin of the Universe" (Sept, 2009 issue) and asked me to decipher it. Now, I'm no scientist by any stretch of the imagination but I found it to be a fascinating (albeit difficult) read that actually created more questions than answers. On a high-level - here is what I took away from it:

  1. There are many different theories on the origin of the universe.
  2. None of them are universally agreed-upon.
  3. What is clear is that 96% of the universe is made up of invisible "dark matter" which is thought to be a form of "energy".
  4. Little else is known about this mysterious substance/energy and yet it appears to be responsible for the formation of the planets as well as sustaining the universe and will determine the ultimate future of the universe.  
Per a more recent article, scientists are now trying to map out this dark matter in the hopes that it will help them better understand what it is.
"Dark matter has never been directly detected, but its presence is felt through its gravitational pull on normal matter...we don't know what the dark matter particle is. It's very widely believed that the final understanding of the dark universe is going to have to invoke some new physics." [1]
Does anybody else find all this a bit interesting?












Now I have no idea what this "dark matter" is but I do know this:
The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. - Colossians 1:15-17

In His Grace,

Peter & Kim

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