Deep space
It was the best of sand. It was the worst of sand.
I had the pleasure of spending a week at the beach recently, and while I was there, I saw the news about some of the first images that had been taken by the powerful James Webb telescope. One of the images caught my attention because it showed thousands of beautiful galaxies in different shapes and colors. The caption said the image represented a section of the sky that had the area of a grain of sand held at arm’s length. Being at the beach, I went down and grabbed a grain of sand. It was hard to get just one, and it looked tiny on my index finger. Then I held my arm out and up toward the sky with my finger bent toward me. In that miniscule section of the sky, we took a picture of thousands of galaxies. Each galaxy potentially the home of over 100 billion stars, and each star, the center of its own solar system. I got goosebumps. The universe is larger than my mind’s ability to imagine it. “The heavens proclaim the glory of God. The skies display his craftsmanship. Day after day they continue to speak; night after night they make him known”
(Psalms 19:1-2). The bible invites us to envision the Being that could create such a thing, and hold it in existence. How powerful They must be. How imaginative and deserving of attention and praise.
Just a day later I had a different experience at the beach. I had the joy of playing a game of ultimate frisbee with several family members, and toward the end of the game I dove for a pass, which I think I missed, and ended up with a face peppered with sand. I thought I had gotten it all off. But the next morning I was writing at a coffee shop and went to rub my eye. A single grain of sand had remained in my eye and when I rubbed it, it scratched my eyeball. My eye was red and irritated for the day, and every time I looked in a new direction the pain stabbed me. I was a sad case, sitting in the corner of the hotel room with my sunglasses on, trying not to change my direction of sight. A full grown man, brought down by a single grain of sand.
These two grains of sand were a helpful reminder to me of the immensity of God and the fragility of man. In a section of the sky as wide as a grain of sand, God can create more timeless treasures and wonders than my mind can comprehend. And with one little grain of sand, my ability to function meaningfully in the world can be ground to a halt. Such is the distance between God and man, Creator and creature, the Immortal and the finite.
And so we stand in awe of God, recognizing that He is the one that possesses immortality, while our short lives quickly expire like evaporating water on the sideway of a hot summer day. We worship Him and praise the one that can cast the limitless universe into existence. We place ourselves at His feet, asking that He would reveal Himself to us. We spend time studying the ways that He has revealed Himself to us, not just in the stars and the sand, but also in the
Scriptures, the Sacrament, and through the person of Jesus, who, according to the ancient creed is ‘God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten not made.’ Are you able to acknowledge your small place in the universe? Are you able to believe that there is a loving God that is the source of it all? Are you willing to praise Him, and to allow Him to lead you on the path that leads to eternal life?
Together in the Journey,
Fr. Cam Lemons
(Father Cam Lemons serves at St. Timothy’s Anglican Church. Service is at 9 a.m. on Sunday at 700 Hobson St. in Bishop. He also serves at Trinity Memorial Anglican Church in Lone Pine. The service there is at noon at 220 N. Lakeview Road. For more information, go to StTimothysBishop.com.)