I love Psalm 8! Take a peek if you aren’t familiar with it. If I, with a modern science background, were to rephrase its ideas, you might hear something like this song.

The heavens do inspire me to think about the power of God. David, the Old-Testament shepherd and king who is credited with this musical psalm, probably spent many nights under wide skies of stars. Now, unfortunately, city lights replace stars for so many people. Sometime in your life travels, I hope you get to experience truly dark, star-sparkled skies!

In our area, when meteor showers or Northern lights displays are predicted, my husband and I often drive out of town for better viewing. There’s even an official “dark-sky” park at the tip of the “thumb” of Wisconsin where you can recline on the shore of Lake Michigan to watch August meteor showers! With skies so dark, you can also perceive the smudge of stars that is our galaxy, the Milky Way. Our galaxy alone is home to an estimated 100 billion stars! That is impressive enough.

In 1998, though, the Hubble Space Telescope (beyond Earth’s atmosphere), compiled 10 days of observations to basically stare at a fairly vacant, small part of sky. This has been repeated elsewhere to show even fainter, more-distant objects. Check out one “Deep Field” image online to really drop your jaw. The myriad bright spots you'll see are not generally stars, but complete, other GALAXIES!

Amazing, right? But wait—there’s more!

On the opposite end of things, advances in microscopy have revealed internal intricacies of cells—chromosomes, ribosomes, spindles, mitochondria—which can help explain our life workings. Psalm 139, also attributed to David, talks about our being “knit together” in our mothers’ wombs, and being “fearfully and wonderfully made” (Psalm 139:13-14). His words express the awe that I felt as a young biochemist, seeing what our tiny cells contained. A doctor/surgeon in my family says, too, how the workings of the human body, to her, are proof of God.

But wait—we aren’t done yet!

Power is only one aspect of God. Back in Psalm 8, verses 3-4 express a foundational concept to me. David writes, “When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them?” (NIV).

In our time, looking at the Deep Field images, my takeaway is that Earth’s humans are really, really, really miniscule in the scope of the universe! But, I still get to the same place as David did: How is it, God, that in all this, you care for US?

Centuries after king David, Jesus preached on this when he said that God cares about even one single sparrow (Matthew 10:29-31)! God even knows how many hairs are on our heads! Or, picture Jesus welcoming and blessing the children people brought to him (e.g. Mark 10:13-16). Both the extent of God’s power and the extravagance of God’s love absolutely crack my brain! Still, I trust that these attributes of God are true, from the Bible as well as experiences of God myself. As David did, I have felt God’s caring for me (e.g. Psalm 30:2-3).

One more-accessible aspect of God—that I smilingly relate to, actually—is God’s delight in creation. In Genesis 1 as God is creating everything, God is shown declaring each new advancement “good.” As a writer/composer, I do understand the fulfillment of fashioning a new, good thing. We love our creations, our “babies”!

There’s a wonderful idea from Julia Cameron’s book The Artist’s Way that has stuck with me.* She writes, "Looking at God's creation, it is pretty clear that the creator itself did not know when to stop. There is not one pink flower, or even fifty pink flowers, but hundreds." She speaks of the creator's "glee." Similarly, I can imagine God having a total blast, gleefully shaping all the diverse species of plants and animals!

We have to add to that, too, God’s loving plans for their future care. With scientists, we can note how the natural world works with abundances and brilliant balances. Or, Psalm 104 more poetically describes Creation and God’s care for it in verses 1-30. Verse 27 specifically talks about God providing his creatures food at the proper times. Where I live, we have a particular species of lake fly. The adults hatch out of the water as winged bugs around Mother’s Day. The air can get thick as they swarm to find mates, then lay eggs for the next generation. (They don’t bite or sting, but there’s often a hum in the air.) Anyway, I’ve seen grackles strutting along with dark, bristly “mustaches” as they easily collect lake flies to bring home to hungry nestlings. This feels like “proper” timing to me.

There is so much to wonder at and be thankful for in Creation! (But wait—still more....) Genesis 1 and 2 are just a start! Creation encompases not just physical surroundings or our bodies; it applies as well to our spirits. Just before the sparrow passage we referenced earlier, Jesus said not to fear the one who can kill the body, but fear the one (God) who can throw the body into hell. We dare not think that earthly benefits of food and other resources are all we need! So, along with declaring how God knows the life of each sparrow, Jesus reassures us that we count much more than sparrows! His amazing parables in Luke 15, especially the Parable of the Prodigal Son, show us how God wants each lost person to be found—and rejoices when they are!

Jesus and the Holy Spirit (both also present at Creation) have specific roles in the life of our spirits—to bring us into relationship with the Trinity. “While we were still sinners,” writes Apostle Paul in Romans 5:8, “Christ died for us.” (NIV, verses 6-8) The Holy Spirit as well, in this age, carries on that reaching work, by convicting, guiding, revealing, empowering, reminding,... When we talk of faithfulness, power, or love from God, consider all three persons! Their work—ongoing, as you may have experienced yourself—gives cause for fullest thanks. That God intentionally goes to such lengths—for us, for you—is mind-boggling!

 

 

*quote from The Artist's Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity, ©1992, 2002, 2016 by Julia Cameron, first published by Jeremy P. Tarcher/Putnam 1992.

 

 

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