The Importance of Staying Connected

God wants us to know and experience His power - He is calling us to rely on the strength that comes from the Holy Spirit.  In Colossians 1, Paul expresses God's will for the people:
9For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding;10that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;11strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy;

His power is described as "glorious," which implies abundance and sufficiency.  Whatever we might be facing today, if we are feeling weak or inadequate, that can become an opportunity for God to display His strength.  We recognize that in and of ourselves, we cannot conjure up the power that we need in order to live the abundant life - but by humbling ourselves before the hand of Almighty God, we can release the resources of heaven to operate in and through us.  He will fill us, He will increase in our lives, as we come before Him empty, yearning to be filled with more of Him.

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I really, really like the apostle Paul's proclamation to those gathered in Athens in Acts 17.  Here are verses 24-28a:
24God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands.25Nor is He worshiped with men's hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things.26And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings,27so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us;28for in Him we live and move and have our being...

The findings of the Philae lander from the Rosetta orbiter released by the European Space Agency continue to emerge, even though the data transmission has stopped due to lack of power.  Philae was the first probe to land on the surface of a comet, according to Fox News, which stated that the comet is 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, which is about 2.5 miles wide and travels at speeds up to 84,000 miles per hour, is 317 million miles from earth.  The pricetag on the mission is $1.62 billion.

Certainly I would think there would be difficulties during a ten-year journey to a comet, but the possibilities of discoveries.   Here are a few things that we know about the mission:

The landing was not exactly smooth.  It bounced twice on the comet's surface before landing in the shadow of a cliff.  This partially shielded the solar panels, so that the lander could not receive adequate power to charge its battery.

And, indeed, the lander is not communicating - it has reportedly fallen into "idle mode."  Fox News says that scientists are optimistic that Philae’s solar panels will eventually receive enough sunlight to power the probe. Before its battery ran out on Nov.15, the agency tilted the lander’s largest solar panel toward the sun in an attempt to generate future power.

There have been some photos that have been sent back.  A Fox story reports that last Thursday, the Agency released the first picture taken by the probe after determining that the craft had stabilized following its tension-filled landing. The agency subsequently released the first panoramic picture taken from the lander. The three feet of Philae's landing gear can be seen in some of the frames.

The Philae probe has detected organic molecules in the atmosphere of the comet, according to initial data. One of the two gas analyzers on board of the lander, was able to “sniff” the comet’s atmosphere and detect organic molecules after landing.

It is unclear whether or not a soil sample has been extracted.

What's also unclear is whether or not these solar panels will actually recharge, leading to further communication.  And, at this point, it's also unclear whether or not what is gathered from the comet will fit into that scientific template that the universe somehow came into being on its own.   

When we deal with issues of space, we do gain a sense of the vastness of the universe, which should lead us into the consideration of the greatness of our God.   The evidence of design is all around us and when we consider that we serve a Creator who has spoken the entirety of space into being, we can marvel at the incredible wisdom and might that He has.    An excellent piece by Michael Guillen on the U.S. News and World Report website states, regarding the euphoria over the landing of the probe:

The self-intoxication made me wonder at how readily we give ourselves credit for a spectacular achievement. We’re positively awesome because the Rosetta mission couldn’t have possibly created itself, right? But bring up the subject of the universe and many of Rosetta’s hyper-enthusiastic scientists would ridicule the idea of crediting God or any form of higher intelligence for its existence. To them, the universe surely created itself.

We also can think about the importance of staying connected.  The Philae probe is currently silent, disconnected from its makers because of a lack of power.  In our spiritual walk, we have to continue to stay plugged in to the source of power, the Holy Spirit resident within our hearts, in order to live a productive and fulfilling life.  If we lose our power and sense of abiding in Christ, then we experience spiritual drift, our prayer life diminishes and we can fall silent.  The probe bridged the miles to deliver its messages, it brought a sense of closeness to that which was far away.  We must not allow God to seem far away from us - He is so near and wants to draw us even closer in our relationship with Him.

Finally, Guillen also writes that the mission teaches us that...

Absolute truth exists. [emphasis mine] Philae never could’ve accomplished its mission were it not for Newton’s Law of Universal Gravity. The operative word is universal.

There’s not one law of gravity for you and another one for me. We all exist under the attractive sway of a single, objective gravitational law.

Likewise, I believe, we all exist under the authority of a single, loving God. The one described in the Bible, whose majestic creation impels us to look upward. Who calls to us from across unimaginable distances and whispers to our hearts and minds: You’re not alone. I’m here … and you belong with me.