Awe and Wonder

Poet Wendell Berry wrote a poem entitled, “On the Theory of the Big Bang.” It reads like this:

What Banged?
Before banging, how did it get there?
When it got there, where was it?

I like the poem because it’s thought-provoking and it reminds me how little we really know. Now, I don’t believe that science and faith are mutually exclusive. They are not. They are just asking different questions. Science is asking, “How did it happen?” while theology asks, “Who created” and “why?”

Science without faith is sterile and often devoid of meaning. Faith without science is often missing richness and depth. But a faith that can look at the discoveries of science and marvel at the intricate details of God’s handiwork, is a faith that is healthy and alive.

When I consider an expanding universe, a universe that contains hundreds of billions of stars, supernovas, spiraling galaxies, and space so vast that it takes light billions of years to cross, I’m amazed. Then, when I consider all that is within that and all that could be beyond that, I’m struck with awe. The words of a Psalm written thousands of years ago come to mind. This is from Psalm 8…

When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon, and the stars that you have established; what are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them? Yet you have made them a little lower than God, and crowned them with glory and honor… O Lord, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth!

Let us pray: Ever Creating God, When we consider our place in this vast universe, it is humbling. When we begin to imagine the details of DNA, or the nuclear reactions needed to birth a star, or the delicacies of a blooming flower, it gives us perspective and pause.

Thank you for your magnificent creation – and for creating us along with all that is. Above all, we thank you for the love and compassion you have for us – love enough to give us a role as caretakers – and love enough to send your Son – in whose name we pray. Amen.