I was recently watching a serial on TV and this particular episode focused on the time that Halley’s Comet flew across our night skies. This phenomenon happened in 1986.
In 1986, I had just commenced as a Primary School Teacher, so I took every opportunity to introduce my class to this once in a lifetime experience. The school I was working at had recently completed building an observatory, so I organised a star/comet watching night with my class of Preps! All night, the Preps and their families looked through the variety of telescopes available, all I could hear was the continual ‘oos’ and ‘ahhs’ of these young minds as they were starting to realise how vast our universe really is!
As I had this flashback, I started to reflect that it is hard for many people to believe in an active care and concern of God, who created this vast universe, in our daily lives. As hard as it is to imagine, it is true – He does have a deep care and concern for you, me, everyone.
On that night on the school oval looking through the telescopes, one of the Senior Science teachers was telling the students that the nearest star is millions of kilometres away and the number of stars in the sky are akin to the number of grains of sands on the beaches of this world. Numbers too vast to comprehend!
The bewildering vastness of space makes it almost naïve to ask: Does God really have a personal interest in me? Is He really interested in my life and what’s happening to me? Does He really want to engage His heart with mine? These are all reasonable questions to pose.
Due to questions like these, many have wondered why Rabbi Kushner’s book, When Bad Things Happen to Good People’, has become a best seller with many rave reviews. I wonder if it is because it presents a view of God that is easy to receive and comprehend – a God who is good and loves His creation but is less than omnipotent (having unlimited power and generosity). Unfortunately, this view has gained popularity amongst the masses as well as for many theologians. It resolves very easily the challenging question of why God allows bad things to good people, but it is not the picture the Bible paints of God.
The passage found in Psalm 32:8 states, “Don’t worry, I will instruct you and teach you, I will counsel you and watch over you.” (New International Version)
This is verse allows us to know and experience that God’s all-seeing eye is going to follow you and me in every step of life’s journey. Though we live in an age of uncertainty, we need verses such as this one to help provide reassuring truth.
What a privilege is to know God and His ever-faithful love for us, His creation. No matter what is happening around us, the God who was able to create the vastness of the universe is the same God who knows your name. Now this is something not only to imagine, but to be a source of great encouragement this day.
Blessings,
Ross Grace
Executive Principal