What if we did something revolutionary this year? What if, instead of Christmas being a time of hurrying and worrying, what if we made this season a time of restoring our sense of wonder and awe? After all, our theology, like our cosmology, could best be defined as primitive. In both cases, there’s always more to explore. In both cases, we “see through a glass darkly.” Yet, the World of God and the Word of God give us a window. And there we learn that the same Christ who was born in a pool of blood just like you, created the vast, incomprehensible cosmos.
For instance, the earth alone-weighs 6.6 sextillion tons. Not trillion, not quadrillion, not quintillion, but 6.6 sextillion tons! That’s the “illion” with the 21 zeros behind it. And all of that weight is traveling through space at 72,600 mph. And the Bible says that the universe is God’s “finger work.” It’s like flicking a switch for God to create and sustain your world. So I think He can handle your mortgage payment.
Genesis 1:16 briefly describes the creation of the stars: “And He made the stars.” That’s it. It’s almost parenthetical; it’s an “oh by the way…” Why so short and simple? It’s too elaborate to elaborate. Psalm 19 tells us that the cosmos is God’s way of getting our attention: “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge.” God is not silent; we are not listening. Just our star, the sun, is 93 million miles away from here. And just to give you an idea of the size of things, you could fit Planet Earth inside the sun a million times like a gumball machine. But there are stars out there much bigger than our sun. One star called Antares could hold 64 million suns the size of our sun. There is another sun out there in the constellation Hercules that could contain 100 million suns the size of Antares. “And He made the stars.” Our galaxy alone is over six hundred trillion miles across. But our galaxy is only one of some hundred-thousand-million galaxies that can be seen using modern telescopes. And each one of those galaxies contains some hundred-thousand-million stars.
Stunning, isn’t it, that the creator of the vast cosmos bounced around in a belly, on a donkey ride into Bethlehem, was born in a pool of blood, in a cave, in a dirty feeding trough? And from the cradle to the cross, Jesus had one all-consuming drive and passion: You. And your eternal well-being. I think a great gift idea for Christmas would be a theology of wonder, a theology that’s never quite complete, a theology that keeps seeking, keeps asking, keeps knocking. Merry Christmas.