Do You Really Matter to God?
Our planet is just one of billions and billions, adrift in the unfathomable emptiness of space. Look at the milky way in the photo above. Every dot in that image is a star. By some estimates, that white expanse contains 100 billion stars in our galaxy alone. Some of those stars have planets like our own. And that's just one galaxy--there might be 100 billion or more of them!
With all those worlds spinning away, some say we are bound to have neighbors out there somewhere. "Look at the odds," they say. "There is no way we have the cosmos all to ourselves!"
Now let me be the first to confess that I have not explored much of the universe. Nearly all of my life has been firmly attached to this one little planet. I do not know what is out there... but neither does anyone else.
If we hear from aliens tomorrow it will not shake my faith. I'll be happy to tell them about Jesus. But here's my point: we have no empirical evidence that they are out there.
In fact, there may be more physical evidence that bigfoot is alive and well in our midst, than that there are aliens running amok in our galaxy. Bigfoot enthusiasts have entire museums chock full of the stuff of legends. Collectors claim they have proof all the way from the swamps outside Washington D.C. to the mountains above Tibet.
So before we settle down to fellowship with E.T., let's consider the evidence. As far as we actually know--as far as anyone can prove--we really are unique in the cosmos. There may be no other like this shimmering, living, breathing world of ours.
What could that possibly mean?
What if God really did create all of this glorious universe just to create a sense of awe? Look again at that milky way. Consider that awesome number of stars.
Can you imagine--just for a moment--that God loves you so much that all of that was created for you? Imagine that God created the whole cosmos to make you realize how awesome the Creator is, and how glorious are God's handiworks?
What if you are not an accident among billions and billions of infinite possibilities? What if you are more than a statistical probability? What if--at the very moment of creation--as God said, "Let there be light," the Creator was thinking of you? What if God flung out all of those stars as a blanket just to show the glory of Creation, and to show how infinite God's love for you could be?
Could it be that statistics and probabilities do not run the cosmos? Could it be that love is the greatest power the universe has ever known, and that love is reaching for you?
Yes, I grant you that it is possible that we are the accidental products of billions and billions random events. But maybe--just maybe--you are the beloved apple of God's eye. Which is more likely? Lift your eyes to the heavens and see for yourself.
The heavens declare the glory of God;
the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
Day after day they pour forth speech;
night after night they reveal knowledge.
They have no speech, they use no words;
no sound is heard from them.
Yet their voice goes out into all the earth,
their words to the ends of the world.
Psalm 19:1-4