On Facebook, I recently posted this picture that gives an accurate view of what our entire continent would look like on Jupiter. (And please note: this is the entire continent…so, from the icy woods of Alaska, down the majestic Canadian Rockies, from sea to shining sea: all of New York City to the Midwest to San Francisco, down through the impossibly large state of Texas, all throughout beautiful Mexico, and right down to the Panama Canal.) Go ahead and give it another look with that in mind.

Truly, we have little to no ability to perceive how large the cosmos are. We can make comparisons and throw out big numbers with lots of 0s added to them, but at the end of the day our little earthbound minds are totally limited in taking in the grandeur of space with all its stars, planets, and dust.

But here is something that should blow our minds into bits and pieces… Physicists recognize that everything around us all expanded from one little point. And this point was really, really little. Smaller than an infant child. Smaller than a pea. Smaller than a cell. Smaller than an atom. And from this speck came everything, including North America….and Jupiter.

The “Christmas Star”

Now we just celebrated Christmas, and there are people all over the world who have a hard time believing in the virgin birth. They have a hard time believing God became incarnate. But I’ll tell you what…I would argue that astronomy and creation itself is way stranger and harder to take in. I understand people accept these things because of the empirical evidence involved, but any honest scientist would acknowledge there are realities we haven’t discovered because they are beyond the realm of our instrumentation. Just because we haven’t empirically observed something yet, doesn’t mean it’s impossible or doesn’t exist.

During the month of December 2020, believers and unbelievers throughout the world were captivated by what some called the “Christmas Star.” This was an alignment of Jupiter and Saturn in the night sky that hadn’t happened to such a close degree in about 800 years. As a result, many people looked up in the western sky and found a brighter-than-usual spot which was a conjunction of the two planets. And to the human eye, this was still just a little speck of light. Without the instrumentation called the “telescope” (that wasn’t developed that long ago–astronomically speaking), we wouldn’t know how tremendously huge those little specks are. (Hence, we have the picture above to help us take it in.)

But here’s the point of all this… Many people look at the birth of Christ and see only a little speck of a story. They see a little “light” of truth in it. However, they totally miss the wide, expansive glory of it all. And this is because they do not use the telescope of faith. Faith magnifies the beauty and reality of something. It expands the vision; a vision which arises from the heart.

The wonder of this reality (if you will take it in through the light-capturing lens of your heart) is astounding. Think about it. Meditate upon it… God Himself condensed His being into a very little point, much like the one that birthed the cosmos. Now Mary’s virgin womb was filled with the same molecules that come from the stars. Indeed, the human body is the most advanced part of this creation; a miracle of all miracles, the cream of the crop of creation. And within this advanced collection of carbon in the incredible human body God gave form and substance to His complete Self. The Creator of Jupiter, the Canadian Rockies, and you, was born in the person of Jesus Christ. It’s wild. It’s crazy. It’s unfathomable. And yet so is everything else!

These things should cause our hearts to skip a beat. But they won’t unless we pick up that instrumentation of faith. We have look more closely at this amazing reality of our incarnate Savior. It can’t just be a speck of light from a cool story. It must be seen in its full glory and grandeur.

Now, like the universe, we can’t really fathom the full beauty of Jesus. We can’t take it all in. However, we can start the journey of exploring it. We can go deeper and further than we’ve been before. Like an astronomer, we can discover more of the beauty of this light of truth.

May God give us the grace to do just that.

🔭🔭🔭🔭🔭🔭🔭🔭🔭🔭🔭🔭🔭

Special Note: If you are captivated by the wonders of the cosmos, and all of its spiritual connections to Christ, I invite you to get the new book from Eyes Open Press “Into the Abyss: Discover Your True Identity in the Infinite Depths of Christ” by Mo Thomas. It merges science and faith in incredible ways. As of December 2020, this book is now available! 

Cover Photo: John Brady / AstronomyCentral