Gen 1:16 BTW

"God also made the stars" Genesis 1:16.

It sounds so off hand when you read it. "Oh, by the way he created the stars too". For most of us the stars don't figure much in our lives. We are either tucked up in bed or there is too much light pollution to see many of them. For the people in bible times however the stars must have been an awesome sight. An uncountable number of bright pin pricks spread out in a massive canopy above them. No wonder many came to think of them as effecting the lives lived out below them. Only recently have we in the west given them a second glance through the eyes of the Hubble telescope. A perfect storm of turbulent gases in the Omega/Swan Nebula, the majestic spires and pillars of the Eagle Nebula, the spectacular birth and death of stars, whirling colliding galaxies. They are all summed up in this incredible BTW.

If we didn't have the bible the stars might just give us the wrong idea about our significance. I've just watched the end of James May's 20th Century. He seems to be on TV a lot now doesn't he? Driving around on Top Gear, Making Lego houses, and now this. All very watchable though. Anyway funnily enough he was talking about Edwin Hubble who was the first person to demonstrate the existence of other galaxies outside our milky way confirming that not only was our planet one of several in our solar system and our solar system one of millions in our milky way galaxy, but our galaxy was one of billions of others in a gigantic expanding universe. "It could be" pondered James May "that we really don't matter at all".

If we discount God then that conclusion may have some force but there is a God who is very interested in us and so the argument can be run the other way. How awesome must his purposes be that he didn't just create a small blue planet to fill with people but he set it in such a frame. If the centre of the universe is defined by anything then surely it's defined by the death and resurrection of his son. Here is the centre piece, all else is just backing. God's son dying for our sin and rising to give us new life.

All this reminds me of an argument put forward by a "new atheist" Christopher Hitchens (new in the sense of strongly militant stance against religion). One of the things he hates about Christianity, is that on the one hand it says we are all worms deserving of eternal punishment in hell, but on the other it says that all the vast awesome expanse of the universe, with its suns and galaxies and nebula is all here for our benefit. He uses some long words for that but I can't remember now. There is some truth in both those statements although they are of course rather distorted versions of the truth. The main thing they fail to grasp is the cross.

On the cross God displayed his glorious love and grace to us "worms" dealing with our sin and adopting us into his family. The universe exists not so much for us as for Him with you and me being happily caught up in his glory.

BTW - The bible does not say we are horrible worms! Nor does it say we are mere monkeys. But more on that next I expect!