We start to give meaning to life when we compare it to our surroundings and I don’t mean how our neighbours are faring, but to the great framework of the cosmos. A perspective that doesn’t rise to the Heavens isn’t much of a view, for man is painfully aware of the fragility and briefness of his earthly existence. There is wisdom in the Biblical notion that man’s lifespan was reduced from a thousand years to its current brevity, as mankind was quite capable of embarrassing itself with greater follies than the one demonstrated at Babel. Recent scientific discoveries have stretched knowledge to a level where reason grapples with incomprehension. There are atomic particles that travel faster than the speed of light, meaning time travel is theoretically possible. It’s proven the expansion of the universe is accelerating, which doesn’t doom the Big Bang to become the Big Freeze, but rather reveals a Creator dynamically weaving his cosmic threads.
Life is astounding juxtaposed with its universal frame of reference. We cannot respond with anything but breathless amazement at our hesitant measurements of the clockwork of heaven. The paradox of knowledge is not that the poetry of Genesis One is inadequate, but that mankind will never grasp the immensity of this celestial environment. In the year 150 Ptolemy perceived Earth at the centre of the cosmos with the Sun just ten thousand earth-widths away. Then in 1540 Copernicus shifted Earth heliocentrically in a universe confined by the Solar System. More recently, even Einstein believed the Milky Way galaxy contains the entire creation, though today every schoolboy knows there are hundreds of billion of galaxies awash with stars and planets. Though science continually deploys the most powerful tools available, mankind is incapable of keeping up with Natural Revelation that enriches our mind with widening ripples of knowledge.
“Where were you when I laid the foundations of the universe?” Job was asked in a moment of truth relived by every generation that is confounded by the vast mysteries of the cosmos. There can only be utter humility at the enormity of our ignorance, that is further exposed by our cluelessness about Dark Matter that constitutes an overwhelming 95% of creation. Clearly, God is too transcendent to be captured by telescopes, so we are more likely to catch a glimpse of his splendor by observing his handiwork from our present vantage point. From here the Creator challenges us to rise from the mundane humdrum of convention to the sublime, from the meaningless preoccupations of modern life to the divine. He invites reflection on his power so we might experience the universe for what it is: a living testament to his glory and a joyful celebration of his most precious creation – man, made in his image for a dialogue of faith.
