Good Heavens! The Sky Speaks Without Words!
Good Heavens! The Sky Speaks Without Words!
“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth… And God said, ‘Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters,’ and God made the expanse and called it Sky, or the Heavens… And God said, ‘Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years, and let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth.’ And God made the two great lights and the stars.” (Genesis 1:1,6,14).
DEFINING OUR TERMS:
Firmament = Latin, for vast expanse or sky; expanse of the heavens above the earth; the expansive atmosphere.
Celestial = Greek, “epouranis;” above the sky; heavenly; belonging to heaven; the world beyond our ability to perceive; contrasted with terrestrial (of the land); in Bible often pertains to spiritual heaven as a divine place above the sky, and the resurrection.
Cosmos = Greek, “kosmos;” all of creation; a well-ordered whole; the harmonious universe; the inherent ordered arrangement of the world; humanity, all the people on earth.
Star = Greek, “aster;” a giant, beautiful, glowing ball of hot gas in space; composed of 90% hydrogen and 10% helium; powered by nuclear fusion as it produces light and heat energy, causing it to shine in the night sky.
Planet = Greek, means “wandering star;” a natural object that has a motion of its own, orbiting a star; is massive enough for its gravity to force it into a spherical shape; composed of rock or metal with solid surface (if nearer to the sun), or hydrogen and helium gas (if further away from the sun).
Galaxy = a huge, organized grouping of stars.
Galaxy Groups = a large collection of galaxies.
Galaxy Clusters = thousands of galaxies bound together by gravity.
Super Clusters = large grouping of galaxy clusters.
Galaxy Filaments = huge ‘walls’ of galaxy super clusters.
Constellation = a group of stars that form a pattern or design in the night sky, making an imaginary shape or design; they are usually named after mythological characters, animals, or objects that they resemble; there are 88 officially recognized constellations.
Light-Year = This is a unit of length, not of time; it is a way of measuring the distance between objects in space; it is based on how far it takes light to travel in one year; light travels at 186,000 miles per second; one light year is about 6 trillion miles. So to determine the distance across the Milky Way galaxy, for example, we would have to multiply 6 trillion miles times 100,000 light-years. Practically countless.
“Praise the Lord! For it is good to sing praises to our God, for He is gracious and lovely; praise is becoming and appropriate… He determines and counts the number of the stars; He calls them all by their names. Great is the Lord, and of great power; His understanding is inexhaustible and boundless.” (Psalm 147:1, 4, 5).
BY THE NUMBERS:
Size of the Universe = Impossible to determine the actual size; it may be an infinite size, or “maybe finite but unbounded;” the universe is flat and constantly expanding at a very fast rate; the observable universe is about 94 billion light-years in diameter; the most distant objects in universe are 47 billion light-years away; it is estimated that the universe is 250 times larger than the observable universe, or 7 trillion light-years across.
Number of Galaxies = in observable universe, there are between 200 billion to 2 trillion galaxies.
Number of Stars = in observable universe, there is an average of 100 million stars in each galaxy; many galaxies have billions of stars; the largest known galaxy has 100 trillion stars; astronomers suggest there are more stars in the observable universe than there are grains of beach sand on the Earth.
Number of Planets = For every one of the billions of stars in the observable universe, there are many planets; the number of planets are thus literally uncountable.
Earth’s Galaxy = The Milky Way, which has between 100-400 billion stars; it is 100,000 light-years across; it appears there is only one sun in the Milky Way, sitting exactly in the middle of our solar system; our sun is a star that has eight planets orbiting around it. Our closest galaxy neighbor is the Andromeda galaxy, which has 1 trillion stars.
“Lift up your eyes on high, and see! Who created these? He who brings out their host by number and calls them all by name; through the greatness of His might, and because He is strong in power, not one is missing or lacks anything.” (Isaiah 40:26).
The Sky Proclaims the Magnificent Glory of Creator God:
“The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim His handiwork.
Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge.
There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard.
Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.” (Psalm 19:1-4).
Speaking Without Words. According to David, creation has a voice that speaks without words. Creation has its own language, a unique way of communicating truth about its Maker. In Psalm 19 we find David extolling the greatness and splendor of God’s handiwork in the heavens. Can you imagine what David would say now, with what we have discovered in the modern era? Back when he wrote that psalm, the entire universe consisted of what they could see in the skies, the vast galaxy that we have named the Milky Way. They thought back in David’s time that their sight captured the whole universe. What would he say now? Our Milky Way galaxy is just one of billions of galaxies! In our galaxy alone there at least 100 billion stars with their orbiting planets. David saw one galaxy and declared the greatness of God, and now there are billions. We have come to discover the unthinkable vastness of God’s creation in the skies above us, and we still haven’t reached the end of it. The heavens do indeed proclaim God’s glory, the weighty splendor of His presence in the world. In the Scripture, all the stars point to a Star-Maker, the planets to a Planet-Maker, the universe to a Universe-Maker.
And creation hasn’t lost its voice. It continues to speak to us every day and every night of God’s powerful existence, of His unimaginable craftsmanship. They tell us without a sound, without a word. The skies display so many things… His character, His beauty, even His righteousness. “The heavens proclaim the Lord’s righteousness; every nation sees His glory.” (Ps. 97:6). Creation has its own nonverbal language. Creation-talk speaks volumes of unspoken truth about the unlimited power of God’s creativity. To a believer, nature is a sacred book that speaks of God’s intelligence, His imagination, His miraculous attention to detail, His sheer perfection. As Eugene Peterson suggests, it’s as if God’s glory is on a personal tour.
No Excuse. St. Paul seems to have little patience with those who have unthinkingly rejected God. They have decided, says Paul, to ignore the profound witness of creation. “For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see His invisible qualities – His eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God.” (Romans 1:20). Isaiah speaks of how God had a personal hand in the heavens. “He stretches out the heavens like a canopy, and spreads them out like a tent to live in.” (Isaiah 40:22). When seen this way, how can anyone remain unimpressed by the witness of creation? We need to read nature like a book, say many theologians, and discover the wonders of our God, the clarity of His witness around us.
Loud and Clear. The scientists continue to exclaim that, as vast as it is, the universe is still expanding. Creation continues. Is God personally stretching out the heavens like a farmer casts his seeds, or did He create a system that is able to expand itself? Either way, God’s creative ability is beyond comprehension. And the skies continue to declare His splendor and greatness. Without words, God’s creation is speaking loud and clear for all the world to see and understand. With our eyes wide open, His glory is on magisterial display.