By Sandy Mittelsteadt
Faith Contributor, Valley Ag Voice
Even before the COVID-19 virus created the pandemic, my husband and I began to study the universe every night. We subscribed to the Great Courses app and downloaded the course, Understanding the Universe with Dr. Alex Filippenko from the University of California at Berkeley. This lecture series has 96 lessons. At the same time, we began to read a chapter out of the Bible every night. The Bible tells us that the heavens proclaim God’s glory and creativity. Genesis implies that God breathed out the universe and when God said he wanted light, that light came soaring out of his mouth at 186,000 miles per second. God’s light chased back the darkness and lit up the universe. The lights of the universe speak to us of God’s greatness. Of course, the stars and galaxies don’t speak in words like people do, but how big they are and how they shine tell us that the God who created them is marvelous and formidable. The Bible also tells us that God counts each and every star, and He calls them all by name. And, that is not just the stars in our galaxy, which is really huge, but all the stars in the billions and billions of galaxies that we know about. (Our own Milky Way Galaxy is so big that scientists think it has between 100 and 400 billion stars in it; it is so big that it is difficult to count all the stars.) That’s why it is fun and exciting to spend time exploring about the universe God made, because the more we learn about what He created, the more we learn about God!
I like to think of God as a creator, who is eager to show us all the incredible things He prepared. Just think, the universe started from nothing. Scientists don’t exactly know how God made the universe from darkness and nothing, but they describe that space and energy began to stretch across the heavens. Some of the energy congealed into space dust and gases, from which galaxies and stars were forged.
Throughout the universe, God shows His creativity, and it is totally and incredibly amazing! His creativity has no end. And God’s creativity shows up in you and me. God has created an amazing story in us, and He begin writing it even before we were born. Psalm 139:13-14 states: “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.” God not only “knit” your body together, but he gave you carefully crafted talents, gifts, and abilities so that no one else will ever be like you.
When my husband and I lived in Eastern Saudi Arabia, we went on a tour of Western Saudi Arabia. A physician was on the tour with us. One day as we were talking, I asked him how he came to believe in God. He answered by saying as he was studying how a baby’s face came together in the womb, he realized that only a God could put eyes where they needed to be, and the nose and mouth where they needed to be in order to create the baby’s face, and each face is unique. It is exciting to comprehend that God knows our name, just as He knows the names of all the stars. In the vastness of space, each person is important to God and He wants to build a relationship with you and me that will never, ever end.
God leaves his fingerprints over all of creation. The Bible says that even though we can’t see the invisible evidences of God, like his power, we can see His creation and know that He exists. In fact, Colossians 1:16-17 (King James Bible) states: “For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: And he is before all things, and by him all things hold together.” A picture of this verse is seen in laminin, which is the glue that holds our bodies together. A body has about 37.2 trillion cells, and what is even more amazing than laminin holding our cells together is what laminin looks like. Laminin looks like a cross. Not only did God put us all together, but he puts His Holy Spirit inside us. God plans to use us in powerfully big ways.
I believe that something as big as the universe and something as small as DNA had to have a Grand Creator—a God. This is a God that I want to talk to and listen to. Most of all, I want to tap into His power. I can do that by praying to Him. My prayer is: Lord, thank you for creating me and the universe in which I live. Please change my thoughts and actions be more and more like you. Most of all, thank you for sending the Holy Spirit to dwell in me.
