Measuring God's Greatness in Light-Years

(Above: M31, better known as the Andromeda Galaxy, is believed to contain 1 trillion stars)

It only takes one second for light to circle the Earth 7 times. Just imagine how much distance light could travel in a whole year! This is precisely what is meant by a "light-year", and scientists use this unit of measurement to gauge distances in our universe. In order to put some more meaning behind this idea, let's actually calculate the number of miles in a light-year:

• Long ago it was discovered that light travels at a speed of 186,000 miles per second
• There are 3,600 seconds in an hour, so that gives us 669,600,000 miles per hour
• There are 24 hours in a day, so now we're up to 16,070,400,000 miles per day
• Multiplying by 365 days gives us our final distance of 5,865,696,000,000 miles per year

Nearly 6 trillion miles! And that's just one measly light-year. The closest star to Earth (besides the Sun) is 4.3 light-years away, or 25,222,492,800,000 miles (i.e. 25 trillion). The space shuttle, traveling at its orbiting speed of 17,500 mph, would need over 164,000 years to reach this star. I will assume NASA isn't planning any missions there anytime soon. Nor will they be sending anyone to the Andromeda Galaxy, though it is one of the most beautiful and intriguing objects in the universe. This galaxy sits about 2.2 million light years away, meaning that the shuttle would need 84,178,285,700 years to reach it. Amazingly, it is still visible from Earth with the naked eye! Can you imagine how enormous this object must be for it to be visible from 12,904,531,200,000,000,000 miles away?

In the book of Genesis we read the following:

"He also made the stars. God set them in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth, to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good." (Genesis 1:16-18)

I love the image of God forming these objects and setting them in place in the vast expanse of outer space. Our God must have incredibly long arms...at least 12,904,531,200,000,000,000 miles in length :) And there are objects much further away than the Andromeda Galaxy. Much, much further.

We are indeed privileged to be living in a time when crisp, colorful photos of amazing far-away objects are captured and made readily accessible via an Internet connection or TV set. Those without such worldly luxuries need only look upward at the star-filled sky and ponder the greatness of the God who created these things. The universe is the stage and we have been given a private screening by the Producer.

Thank you, Lord, for allowing us to behold Your amazing Creation, whether through sight, sound or simply contemplating its limitless height, breadth and width. Amen.