A Trip through the Universe

Have you ever taken the time to really reflect on the magnitude of the universe??

We talk and sing about how great God is, but how often do we truly think about HOW GREAT He really is?

To help us get just a tiny glimpse of God's incredible greatness, let's take a little trip together...

Imagine we are traveling in a car together at 65 mph (105 km/h). If we keep at a steady pace, not stopping to fill up with gas or get food, how long will it take us to drive around the earth? A: 384 hours -- 16 full days! If we want to go to the moon in our car? 3,548 hours >> 148 days >> nearly 5 months!

Let's take a rocket. The fastest speed we have reached yet is 25,000 mph (40,000 km/h). But, this is still not fast enough -- traveling at this speed we would reach earth's nearest star in 112,657 years!

We're going to have to travel much faster than this! Let's pretend we have a "speed-of-light spaceship" to travel in. Light travels at 186,000 m/sec (300,000 km/sec)! It is impossible to travel at this speed. One scientist conservatively estimates it would take the output of the all the world's nuclear energy to push a golf ball to the speed of light!! But, even then, according to laws of physics, it would be impossible. Although it is completely impossible for us to travel at this speed, let's just imagine we could...

Blink your eyes for just a second. In the time it took to blink your eyes just once, light can travel around the earth at the equator 7 1/2 times!!! Now we're moving!!

So, traveling in our speed-of-light spaceship, how long will it take us to get to the:
Moon -- 1.2 sec
Sun -- 8 min 20 sec
Pluto (farthest planet) -- 5.3 hrs
Proxima Centauri (nearest star) -- 4.2 yrs
(remember we can travel the equator 7 1/2 times in the blink of an eye at this speed --
and it takes us over 4 yrs to reach the nearest star!!)
Sirius (brightest star in sky) -- 8.6 yrs
Polaris (north star) -- 432 yrs!
to get to the center of the Milky Way galaxy -- 30,000 yrs
to cross the Milky Way galaxy -- 100,000 yrs
Andromeda galaxy (closest galaxy to ours) -- 2 million yrs
Virgo cluster of galaxies (closest cluster to us) -- 60 million yrs
3C273 - a quasar (the farthest thing astronomers can see with most sophisticated equipment) -- 2500 million yrs!

Does that boggle your mind? What a humbling thing when we realize the magnitude, the Awesomeness, the Power, the GREATNESS of our Almighty God who created it all by His spoken word and holds it all in His hands!!!!!

Michael and I will be teaching in DTS this next week on the Character of God. The above is a small excerpt from Tues. morning's opening (that comes with powerpoint), when we will look at God being All-powerful, All-knowing, All-present, and All-wise.

I always have fun teaching this day -- the morning includes powerpoint pictures, music, blowing up balloons, God-stories, and lots of personal challenge as we consider what these aspects of God's character mean for us in our daily lives. Right now, I'd better go do some more preparing for tomorrow's class...!