God and Science pt.2

Take a moment and look up to the sky. We call Earth home but when you think of outer space, stars, the sun, the moon, and galaxies it begs the question- is there more life outside of Earth? One of the biggest controversies in science right now is the question of, is there more life outside of Earth? Most scientists believe that this world can’t just be for Earth, if it was, the universe is way too big. That makes total sense, but what if that’s not the reason for the creation of the universe? We don’t even know the full extent of the universe, so why would it be used to benefit us? What if it was actually created to glorify God? 

  

There is so much that we don’t know about the universe. What we have discovered of the Universe, we call the known Universe. Until I did some research, I had never heard of something called astronomical units. Scientists use astronomical units to measure outer space as well as light years. To try to remotely put the size of astronomical units into comparison with the size of the earth, it takes about 93,000,000 miles to make up one astronomical unit. Astronomical units are then used to make up a light year, it takes 63,000 astronomical units to make up one light year, which is how we measure time in space. The milky way galaxy in and of itself is 100,000 light years across. Wow, isn’t that huge! 

I think that it’s easy to stop at the milky way galaxy, to think that’s the end, but the milky way galaxy is just one out of 100-200 billion galaxies in the known universe! Here is a picture of the milky way galaxy. Notice how we can’t see Earth, we can’t see the planets. Also notice where we are in our galaxy, we aren’t even in the center of our own galaxy. 

Now that we know how big the universe is, it makes it easier to see ourselves for who we are, small. Then it makes it much easier to see God for who He is, huge! The creator of this whole Universe took the time to create you and to create me, our stories, our personalities, absolutely everything about us. 

We are familiar with the moon; we know what it looks like and that it gives us light that we need at night. Although the world is constantly spinning, we only see half of the moon. The half that we see is really pretty, it looks smooth and shiny. But we know that the moon has craters on its surface, that it isn't completely smooth. What if I told you that the moon has a dark side. 

At first glance, I think most of us would look at these two pictures and assume the picture on the left is the dark side, and the picture on the right is the side we normally see, right? The side on the left is what we normally see, it looks rough, it looks dark, but those dark spots are actually really smooth. On the other hand, if you look closely at the other picture, you can see how rough it is. The dark side of the moon hardly has any smooth spots. It is filled with craters, places where different things in space smash into it. The dark side of the moon is actually what ends up protecting the light side, the side we are used to seeing. 

What if we as humans had a dark side as well? Not dark as in evil or bad, but dark because of what it’s been through. We as humans love to put our best foot forward, to show other people what we really want them to see, to make them think that there is only one side to us, but in reality there is a dark, imperfect side as well. That imperfect side is what takes the brute of life, the hardships, the pain, the brokenness, shame, guilt, everything that you could imagine. When you think about it, the side of ourselves that we like to show would never even be able to handle it. So what if having a dark side isn’t necessarily a bad thing? I don’t think that it’s a bad thing in and of itself, but what I do think is that we would be lying to ourselves and others if we didn’t take the time to explore our imperfections. 

The imperfections in life are what allows us to be human, what allows us to make mistakes and still be okay. Although we like the light side of our moon a whole lot more than the dark side, God is well accustomed to both. He doesn’t just know you in your greatest moments, He knows you through your hardest, toughest, and worst moments as well.

 I think that it’s so special to look and see that God didn’t just create the light side of the moon, He also created the dark. What does this mean for us? It means that we don’t have to hide. All of the craters crashing into us aren't meant for us to deal with alone, God didn’t just create the light side of us, He also created the dark and the hard side. He is with you through everything you are going through, your good and the bad. I hope that this is something that you can begin to surrender to God because He already knows and loves you for it!