This is a guest post from a group called Team Humanity. Their mission is to help you "discover the beauty of unity, of our one humanity, with His Divinity." You can learn more about Team Humanity by following them on YouTube, Twitter or Facebook. And if you too are interested in guest posting on my blog, please visit my Guest Post guidelines for more info.
Have you ever sat and thought about the vastness of creation? I don't mean the Earth… I mean the universe and the galaxies! How about the stars? Did you know that the sun is 93 million miles away (150 million kilometres) from Earth and is so large that 960,000 earths could fit inside it!? And that's just one star in our galaxy!
How about Betelgeuse? No not the movie. That's another star. It's 427 light years away.
That might not sound very far, but the ruler, the kilometre, the yard stick… none of these things will help us when it comes to comprehending the distance. Bear with me and let me explain. Light travels 186,282 miles per second (299,792 kilometres per second). So, a lightyear is about 5.88 trillion miles (9.5 trillion km).
Enjoying the science lesson?
Back to Betelgeuse. 427 light year away and it is twice the size of… you think I'm going to say the sun... nope... try the EARTH’S ORBIT AROUND THE SUN! That means you could fit 262 TRILLION EARTHS in Betelgeuse!!!
But that's not even the biggest star! When I heard about this star, I didn't know how to talk to God for a while. The largest known star is Canis Majoris - the size of which is truly incomprehensible. How big is this ONE star?
If Earth was a golf ball (get ready for this) Canis Majoris would be... drum roll please…
THE HEIGHT OF MOUNT EVEREST! It’s so big that you could fit seven quadrillion earths in it!
(Take a moment of silence)
Do you know what a quadrillion is? Check this out:
1 million seconds ago – 11.5 days ago
1 billion seconds ago – 1985 (approx. 32 yrs.)
1 trillion seconds ago – 29, 671 B.C. (31,688 yrs.)
1 quadrillion seconds ago – 31,707,775 B.C. (31,709,792 yrs.)
FYI: That's enough golf balls to fill the entire state of Texas 22 inches deep (that's 0.56 meters)! And don't forget SOMEWHERE - on JUST ONE of those 7 quadrillion earth-sized golf balls - is our planet earth!
But these are just the stars that our beautiful God has created. I haven't begun to explain God's most honoured creation...YOU!
But we are also fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 139:14). As one author puts it:
“Our beginning lies in one microscopic cell from our mother, and one from our father. These form one new cell, with a totally new and unique set of DNA. It contains three billion characters of code. This one tiny cell contains all the information and instructions needed to produce us. This one cell divides, and soon an embryo becomes a baby which becomes a child which becomes an adult. The single cell now gives way to 75 trillion cells in the human body. Every one of these cells has all three billion bits of our genetic code.”
If I were to read your DNA, reading one character per second, night and day, it would take me 96 years just to read the description of you! And when they formed together, they wrote out, and painted a picture, which had never been written before in the history of humankind.
Whoever you are reading this today, you are a miracle. This lengthy introduction to prove one simple truth; you are eternally special and unique.
I recently was blessed to go on a once and a lifetime trip with 16 bros from the land down under. Going on this trip with 16 other godly men from Sydney opened my eyes to see the uniqueness of personalities, gifts, and talents that each one had.
But there was something profoundly beautiful to remember that the Creator knows each of these by name. That each are called to greatness through, by and in Christ. That each contribute a unique function within the greater body. I'm not being overly dramatic when I say books can be written about each of them. Christ blessed me through each of these mighty men by challenging me to learn from the example of my brothers.
My prayer is that we’d always have the grace to see Christ in others – and by doing so, be encouraged to find Christ within ourselves. Our diversity is a means to inspire our unity. And to ever praise and glorify our awesome Creator. May we be unified in the One in which we live, move, and have our being.
"Men go abroad to wonder at the heights of mountains, at the huge waves of the sea, at the long courses of the rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motions of the stars, and they pass by themselves without wondering." ~ St Augustine