We Are Very Tiny

My wonderful astute wife, Evelyn, just saw a news flash from Paris as follows:

Astronomers on Wednesday [that would have been 8 July 2009] said they had found the farthest supernova ever detected, a giant star that ripped apart around 11 billion years ago.

A new technique enabled the cosmologists to make the find, which should help advance knowledge into these rare phenomena and their role in generating other stars, they said in a report published by the British journal Nature.

A supernova occurs when a massive start runs out of fuel, collapses in upon itself under the foce of its own gravity to become a tiny, ultra-dense object called a neutron star.

The star then explodes, sending out a shock wave that reverberates around the galaxy. The blast distributes elements that are heavier than oxygen, such as iron, calcium and silicon, and enriches the molecular clouds that over the aeons cluster together and form new star systems.

The ancient supernova was found after atronomers compared several years of images taken from a portion of the sky, enablingo them to look for objects that changed in brightness over time. The universe is believed to be 13.7 billion years old, so the supernova marks the death of one of the earliest stars in creation.

The previous supernova record was an event that happened around six billion years ago. [End of News Report]

This does not surprise me at all!!! What about YOU???

This is the year 2009 A. D. [more recent terms C. E.]. WE ARE JUST NOW BEGINNING TO LEARN IMPORTANT FACTS AND TRUTHS ABOUT OUR UNIVERSE. If ANYONE here on earth thinks that person KNOWS all there is to know about our little earth, to say nothing about the whole universe--better think again--long and hard. We ain't seen nothin' yet out there--in the universe AND on planet earth.

I now live in Abilene, Texas. For several years, I lived in or near Nashville, Tennessee. Evelyn and I have traveled over all the earth--South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, Pacific Islands--you name it. BUT, whenever and wherever I [or YOU] am, I am VERY, VERY TINY--just a speck.

Biblical speakers and writers acknowledged this ages ago. Here is one example. The poet who composed Psalm 8 declares:
When I look at your heavens,
the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars that you have established;
what are human beings that you are mindful of them,
mortals that you care for them? (Psalm 8:3-4).

When I think clearly and seriously about my life in light of God's magnificent tiny earth and tremendous universe, how could I ever think that I am important or arrogant or haughty or "not like other people" [as Jesus keeps reminding us in Luke 18:11]--no matter how wealthy or powerful or wise I might be?

The Bible teaches:
"All of you must clothe yourselves with HUMILITY in your dealing with one another, for
'God opposes the proud,
but gives grace to the humble.'
HUMBLE YOURSELVES therefore under the mighty hand of God, so that he may exalt you in due time." (1 Peter 5:5-6; see James 4:10).

Dice it any way to cut it. No matter how tall I am, no matter how much I weigh, no matter how money I have, no matter how degrees I possess, no matter how exalted is my "office" or position [politically, socially, educationally, religiously or what], I am exceedingly tiny. GOD ALONE counts--not me--not you. GLORIFY GOD ALONE!!!

How do YOU respond to all this?

John Willis