Deep Space, and my Keys

August 16th, 2017

Astronomers with the Hubble telescope, instead of focusing on some known part of the heavens, zoomed in on “nothing.” It was one of the empty spaces between stars where all was just black. They stayed on it for 11 days. What they got was the image above. It includes 10,000 objects, mostly galaxies, at least one 13 billion light-years away.

It’s the deepest space man’s equipment has been able to fathom yet, but one gets the idea it goes on from there. And on. And on.

I’m reminded of the cosmological question by the student to the Indian sage. He asked, “What holds the world up?” The sage, “It’s sitting on the back of an elephant.” The student asked, “What does the elephant stand on?” to which the sage answered, “It stands on the back of another elephant.” The student asked again, “What does that elephant stand on?”  Finally the master replied, “Son, it’s elephants all the way down.”*

Solves everything, right? Now where did I put my keys?

I like better the psalmist’s approach, acknowledging God:

When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained;
What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?**

That’s mystery enough for me. Whether or not I find my keys.

_____________________
*   The story is usually told with turtles, but the elephant version carries more weight, (ha), and they have better memory!
** Psalm 8:3,4 (KJV)

5 Comments

  1. Patricia Rody Aug 16, 2017
    12:15 pm

    I love it….all that is there in the unknown of “nothing”! Our God is fathomless in every way!

  2. Lisa Aug 16, 2017
    2:06 pm

    Hope you found your keys!

  3. Tom Aug 16, 2017
    3:05 pm

    That student reminds me of the time I couldn’t find my sunglasses that were pushed up on top of my head, looking everywhere except the obvious.

  4. Lancaster Louis Aug 17, 2017
    6:11 am

    Thank you, Hyatt, how you show us that even when man looks at “nothingness” the visible and invisible “somethingness” is there, testifying that the Creator God is behind it all (Psalms 19:1-6). Reminds me of the definition of faith in Hebrews 11:1.

    I always think of how when we strap on our airline seat belts, we put our provisional trust in those alive and alert pilots behind that door at the front end of the airplane aisle.

  5. Daniel Grove Aug 31, 2017
    3:54 pm

    And He knows where your keys are.