In recent years, photos from ever more powerful space telescopes have given us astounding images of the distant cosmos in all its mysteryA mystery is something secret, hidden and not perceived by ordinary means.  In the book of Daniel a significant mystery is revealed through divine revelation (Daniel 2); Paul speaks of a mystery of God in Romans 11 and again in Ephesians 3.  In speaking of... More and beauty. Fascinated by these images, I have read numerous articles explaining what they show. While I usually find myself out of my depth in terms of the scientific background needed to understand what is presented, what I can understand shakes my worldview to the core. 

Of course, I know that the earth-centered cosmology of the Bible has long been outdated, but practically speaking, my everyday life is focused on the planet on which we live. And of course, I know that the earth and other planets revolve around the sun, yet rarely do I have pressing reasons to contemplate what exists beyond our solar system. Space telescope photos jar me out of this complacency.

What I have learned is surely basic knowledge to anyone well-versed in astronomy, but it is astonishing to me. For instance, our sun is understood to be one star among approximately 100 billion stars in the Milky Way galaxy, and the Milky Way Galaxy one of an estimated 200 trillion galaxies in the universe. The observable universe is believed to be 93 billion light years in diameter, while the total universe may be as vast as 7 trillion light years in diameter and still expanding. We simply cannot know for sure where or even if the universe ends. Moreover, some astronomers have recently presented evidence that the galaxies in our universe may be contained within a black hole that formed inside another, much larger universe, hinting at the existence of a multiverse.

Alongside these mind-blowing hypotheses about the size and nature of the cosmos are calculations by astronomers about the age of our universe, currently estimated to be around 13.8 billion years old. If 13.8 billion years is scaled by analogy to one calendar year, human beings have been present on earth for only two minutes!

Herein lies my existential angst. Our planet is but a tiny speck in the vast expanse of the cosmos, and our lives are infinitesimally brief in the colossal span of cosmic time. Cosmologically speaking, human life seems utterly insignificant, destined for oblivion. 

And yet, we are connected to everything that exists. Another fascinating discovery of recent centuries is that the basic chemical elements that compose the cosmos also form our galaxy, our planet, and even the cells of our bodies. As Carl Sagan famously said, “We are made of star stuff.”

That these chemical components of the universe came together in such a way as to form living things was hardly inevitable. It required the formation of a planet with conditions hospitable to biological life. Even then, most scientists maintain that the probability of complex, intelligent life evolving was relatively low. Whether life—or even an environment conducive to life—exists on other planets is the subject of intense, ongoing research.

In pondering these realities, I keep coming back to this thought: regardless of whether life exists on other planets, the fact that life exists on this planet is a wonder, a gift. The fact that human life exists in all its complexity is even more astonishing. As intelligent beings composed of the same stuff as the rest of the universe, “we are a way for the universe to know itself,” as Carl Sagan observed.

Furthermore, regardless of which theory of the origins of the universe wins the day, regardless of whether life is ever discovered on other planets, there is one question that science cannot answer: the why question. Why is there something rather than nothing? Why does anything exist at all? The biblical answer, of course, is that God created the heavens and the earth. This is certainly not the only possible answer, but any other answer is as much an article of faith as belief in a creator.

The Christian faith infuses another dimension into belief in a divine creator. It is articulated in the bold affirmation of Colossians 1:15-20, believed to be an ancient creedal expression or “Christ-hymn” incorporated into the letter. 

¹⁵ He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creationCreation, in biblical terms, is the universe as we know or perceive it. Genesis says that in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. In the book of Revelation (which speaks of end times) the author declares that God created all things and... More, ¹⁶ for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers—all things have been created through him and for him. ¹⁷ He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together.  ¹⁸ He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything. ¹⁹ For in him all the fullness of God^[k] was pleased to dwell, ²⁰ and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross. (New Revised Standard Version updated edition)

This passage gives voice to some of the highest Christology in the New Testament, and much ink would be required to plumb its depths. For this brief reflection, I simply wish to highlight the audacity of this claim from a cosmological perspective—that the one who took on our flesh and lived among us on our tiny planet is the one through whom all things in heaven and on earth were created, the one in whom all things in this vast universe cohere and are reconciled to God.

Audacious as it may be, it is this claim that finally calms my existential angst. The confession that God took on our flesh—our “star stuff”—in JesusJesus is the Messiah whose life, death, and resurrection are God's saving act for humanity. More Christ means that we are not alone or abandoned in this vast universe. Neither need we be threatened by whatever “thrones or dominions or rulers or powers” may exist beyond our world. There is nowhere and nothing that is outside of Christ, beyond his sovereignty and reconciling love. 

This conviction enables me to view those space telegraph photos with more awe than angst, and to look forward to future discoveries!