God's Wonders And Glory

The God who made the world and all that is in it, the Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in sanctuaries made by human hands, nor is he served by human hands because he needs anything.

Rather it is he who gives to everyone life and breath and everything. He made from one the whole human race to dwell on the entire surface of the earth, and he fixed the ordered seasons and the boundaries of their regions, so that people might seek God, even perhaps grope for him and find him, though indeed he is not far from any one of us. 

For ‘In him we live and move and have our being,’ as even some of your poets have said, ‘For we too are his offspring.’ Since therefore we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the divinity is like an image fashioned from gold, silver, or stone by human art and imagination. (Acts 17:15, 22 - 18:1)

Unlike Paul, I don’t mind images of divinity fashioned in gold, silver, or stone. Using human art and my imagination – and that of other people especially artists, sculptors, poets, and even scientists – that which is unknowable can be made recognizable. 

Sure, we are the offspring of God, but does that mean the image of divinity must be a human form?  Yes, in him we live and move, and have our being, but so does every other creature on earth, from the smallest to the largest.  God made the whole world and all that is in it.  Accordingly, God’s image is everywhere.   We proud and arrogant human beings tend to think it’s all about us, but far from it.

“To be” (as in beings) is to be alive. The earth is full of life of every imaginable shape, size, and color.

One wonders where else in our Milky Way galaxy there is life and God’s image.   Perhaps that image can include the light from all the stars that brighten our skies.  Even the constellations suggest divinity at work and its image. 

I mention the Milky Way because I just read the April Scientific American article “New view of the Milky Way.” I was reminded that the distance from our sun to our galaxy’s center is 26,600 light years.   Light travels about 180,000 miles per second.   Consider the number of miles light travels in a day, a month, or in this case, a year.   It’s unimaginable!! 

The speed of light when wrapped around the Earth results in 7 ½ trips around the planet in just one second.   That beam travels about 6 trillion miles in one year. Now multiply that mileage by 26,600.    Moreover, it takes our sun 212 million years to orbit around the Milky Way’s center! 

The more we know about ourselves, our origin, and the shape and size of just our galaxy, the more we can appreciate the wonders and glory of God.

Deacon David Pierce