By Sister Morshe Araujo
When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained;4 What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?
Recently I saw an artist’s conception of various planetary bodies in space and their relativeness to each other by size. The artwork began by showing Mercury’s relationship to Mars, Venus and Earth. From there we saw Earth’s relationship to Saturn, Jupiter and the Sun. Compared to the sun, the Earth was the size of a mustard seed. Following the planets proportions, when compared to the Sun, is where I became impressed. The conception then showed the Sun’s size in relationship to other stars that have been discovered and observed in outer space through the Hubble telescope. These stars were massive and each newly introduced astronomical ball of gas was greatly larger than its predecessor, some exceeded the mass of our Sun by more than 100 percent.
I was amazed at just how vast and grand the universe is. More importantly I was overwhelmed by the glory and majesty of our God. There are times when I feel burdened by life’s day-to-day trials, as if the weight of the world is lying squarely on my shoulders. I’m often too focused on my own problems to see the goodness of the Lord. Admittedly, I often feel like my problems are too big for God to handle. Needless to say, these thoughts leave me down, anxious and embittered.
When I saw the aforementioned pictures I initially viewed them from a physical standpoint, as one would view some interesting nugget of information that they may never use in their lifetime. But somewhere along the way, while regarding this scaled graphic of known interstellar objects, I was reminded that God created the entire universe, the planets and stars included. And if He could create this great expanse of space filled with many untold wonders, what makes me believe that the problems I have on Earth (a planet that in the grand scheme of things is less than a grain of sand compared to other heavenly bodies God has created) are unfixable by a God who is greater than the largest star in the universe?
When I looked at it like that, I laughed at my foolishness. If I take my eyes off of myself and my problems and put them on my omnipotent God, things aren’t as dire as I make them out to be in my mind.
By keeping things in perspective as they relate to the superiority of God, I’m able to trust in His power and sovereignty. In reality, there truly is nothing too hard or difficult for our God. I mean, He’s only the creator of all things.