I told you at the end of the last Nugget that this Nugget I wanted to investigate something that absolutely fascinates me. We all know that we live in an expanding universe. We know the universe is immense, beyond human comprehension. Here are some images which will convince you or astound you or both.
E = Earth S = Sun M = Mercury V = Venus M = Mars J = Jupiter
These four images graphically illustrate the expanse of our universe and yet I have only showed you four in a series of NASA images that capture with each successive image the scale and position of the image before it. These four images only capture the expanse of our universe over the first four of the series and yet depict how immense our universe really is. It is mind-boggling. But as I like to tell people, the God who created the universe by the word of His mouth is even more mind-boggling. He is incomprehensible to the degree that some people have asked me how I can believe in God who I can’t explain? Well isn’t that the point. I was once asked to explain the Trinity to my Muslim friend Shenol. I prayed first for insight because I knew my analogies wouldn’t cut it. Then I started with the example of ice, water and steam. All one yet different. Or the orange: skin, flesh and pip, all orange yet different. He waited for my next comment and I had something pop into my mind. I asked him, “What you are asking is for me to explain the biblical concept of Trinity in way that is simple and logical to human understanding, right?” He said, “Yes”. I said, “Well I am not sure I want to worship a God whom I can explain in rational human ways and sum up the totality of God. The God I worship has to be bigger than that. I don’t want to worship a god whom I can totally explain. It pleases me that I can’t comprehend nor explain everything about God. Then I quoted the verses below to him.
My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the LORD. “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.
Isaiah 55:8-9
Having said that, let me take those thoughts above and put them together while adding one more thought. This is the thought that blows my mind totally. The images above capture the nature of the universe well, if only in the first rudimentary steps of the scale involved. Now add to that the fact that scientists and astronomers tells us the universe is rapidly expanding outward as a result of the initial causation. (Let’s allow Big Bang to be inserted there for the sake of argument.) Well the thing that fascinates me, the facts that astound me are that if the whole universe is expanding outward with ever increasing rapidity how is it that the centre holds? Why isn’t the centre rapidly expanding outward from the point of origin too (or oranges – Sorry Donald I couldn’t resist that one.)
In other words how is it that the intricacy yet expanse of our universe is like it is? Our solar system appears to work like clockwork. Scientists can make astronomical measurements (and I use that word in the full sense of what it means) in order to calculate space travel and land men on the moon and launching satellites to fly past Neptune and yet the universe is expanding. If that is the case, and I don’t doubt that it is, how is it that the centre (the universe around us) stays constant, with predictable orbits, revolutions and distances? If our universe is expanding as suggested then why is it that the centre holds so well? Oh don’t get me wrong. I am not suggesting the universe isn’t expanding. I am just asking the question, what is it about the universe that allows for expansion and yet still allows a constant at its centre which enables NASA and other space programmes to calculate the predictable movement of the planets with a degree of accuracy which facilitates space flight with the necessary exactitude? That should not be possible if all planetary bodies are expanding outwards. That fact has always fascinated me. I think the answer is found in Colossians 1 and Hebrews 1 but I don’t know the science well enough to prove it.
Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation, for through him God created everything in the heavenly realms and on earth. He made the things we can see and the things we can’t see—such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world. Everything was created through him and for him. He existed before anything else, and he holds all creation together. [NLT]Colossians 1:15-17
The Son radiates God’s own glory and expresses the very character of God, and he sustains everything by the mighty power of his command. [NLT]
He holds everything together by his powerful word. [ISV]Hebrews 1:3
Now there is an explanation as to why the inexplicable is like it is. But asked me to explain it further and I will defer to God’s Word.
I have just released now the 7th level of Deeper Bible and am starting to teach it. The more I dig the more I find the Word of God to be like the Universe of God. Expansive in its totality at mind blowing levels and yet detailed and precise in its minutiae when we look at the microscopic level. That fact astounds me; and besides which, why would we not expect His Word to have the stamp of His universe all over it.