Counting the Stars

Psalm 147 gives us some insight into the greatness of God's love and His power:3 He heals the brokenhearted And binds up their wounds. 4 He counts the number of the stars; He calls them all by name. 5 Great is our Lord, and mighty in power; His understanding is infinite. 6 The Lord lifts up the humble; He casts the wicked down to the ground.  In this passage, we see a God who is intimately involved in the struggles that we face, the trials that hold us captive and the hurts that keeps us bound.    He is the One who can lift us up as we humble ourselves before Him.   Interestingly enough, the Psalmist reminds us of how big our God is - and how wise!   He counts and names the stars, His understanding is infinite, and He is great and mighty.   We can depend on our big God in the midst of our trials and tragedies.
In Psalm 136, we read this incredible song of worship, which offers a pattern by which we can give praise to God:4 To Him who alone does great wonders, For His mercy endures forever; 5 To Him who by wisdom made the heavens, For His mercy endures forever; 6 To Him who laid out the earth above the waters, For His mercy endures forever; 7 To Him who made great lights, For His mercy endures forever-- 8 The sun to rule by day, For His mercy endures forever; 9 The moon and stars to rule by night, For His mercy endures forever.

A private company, called SpaceX, sent an unmanned space vehicle loaded with 1200 pounds of supplies to the International Space Station early today, marking the beginning of a new era of private space exploration and travel.   If SpaceX successfully docks, it becomes the initial journey in a $1.6 billion contract. The other company with a NASA cargo contract is Orbital Sciences Corp., which is set to test launch its rocket this summer.   

So NASA, which has held the monopoly on the U.S. space program since its inception, is allowing other contractors to work with it.   And, a NASA employee, er, former NASA employee, at the Jet Propulsion Lab, David Coppedge, has some great insights for us coming up.   David  was on the Cassini mission to Saturn for 14 years before he lost his job, and has sued NASA to get his job back - he claims that he was removed from his job in 2011 because he was sharing elements intelligent design with his co-workers.

And, by the way, on the Tuesday edition of my radio show, a gentleman who was demoted from his position filed suit against his employer, saying that his religious freedom rights in the workplace had been restricted.   A settlement has been reached in the case, and the attorney for the employee will join me.

Back to David Coppedge - in addition to inviting co-workers to view materials supporting the theory of intelligent design - he has also written some creation-oriented pieces for the Institute for Creation Research.   One of them is entitled, "How Big is God?", in which he says:

In our imagination (and ignoring relativistic effects) let's aim for the nearest star at light speed...Only after 4.3 years would Alpha Centauri appear larger than a pinpoint of light. Star-hopping within our galaxy, we would be amazed at how much is empty space.

Turning up out of the plane of the Milky Way, it would take 100,000 years for the full spiral of our galaxy to become visible. Though stars at our sun's radius orbit the center at nearly 500,000 mph, the galaxy would appear motionless. A whole human lifetime would pass with no apparent change except for the rare supernova.  As for the earth—if the galaxy were represented as the size of North America, our entire solar system would fit in a coffee cup somewhere in Idaho.

Astronomers estimate that there are as many galaxies outside the Milky Way as there are stars in it. The Hubble Ultra Deep Field, taken in 2004, imaged 10,000 galaxies in a cone of space so slim you could cover it with a grain of sand held at arm's length. Integrated over the entire sky, that would mean there are more than 100 billion galaxies in the visible universe, many with more than 100 billion stars each. According to Psalm 147:4, God calls them all by name.

So, how big is God?   He is the Creator of the universe, setting the worlds in motion.   And, in all his magnificent greatness and wisdom, He has brought about a plan for you and I to know Him intimately through His Son.   And, when we consider the power He has, then perhaps the tedious struggles that keep us frustrated and even afraid can appear quite small, minute, by comparison.  We serve a big God, and He desires for us to pray about all things, big and small, realizing we have someone who can and will answer our prayers as we pray according to His will.