ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS
July 12, 2022
Anyone else absolutely blown away by the first images from the James Webb Space Telescope? I have vague recollections of being this giddy and nerdy when I was 14 years old and the Space Shuttle was being launched for the first time. When they first started talking about the capacity of this new telescope, they used language like “looking into the past.” What does it even mean? One of the galaxy clusters is shown in the photograph as it appeared 4.6 billion years ago. Just reading those words again, and it’s as if my brain doesn’t know how to comprehend such a statement. Yet, as light travels, the light we are seeing was originally emitted nearly five billion years ago. In fact, one of those stars might have died a billion years ago, yet we won’t know for another billion years. Again, I am blown away!
With that said, I have already seen a handful of comments suggesting it is all a ploy to undermine Christian teachings. I am embarrassed and want to quickly write, “I’m not one of those Christians.” The human race is incredibly slow in learning from its own mistakes. And as for those who claim to follow Jesus, it takes very little time to find numerous examples of the church dismissing science and banishing those who suggested the new findings. A few decades or centuries later, science wins the argument and the church has to apologize.
Why is it that some people’s faith is challenged, even threatened, by some new and exciting discovery? I can’t think of a time when something in science had me saying, “One has to go! Science or my faith.” It is part of the marvelous mystery of existence, and whether it is the newest image from the James Webb Space Telescope or a breath-taking expression of self-giving love, I feel quite comfortable sitting back in joy-filled awe.
In my very average brain, I am both baffled and blown away by this amazing universe. I don’t understand it, God, and won’t even pretend to comprehend its vastness or outlandish eccentricities. Give me peace as I explore, ask questions and am often left star-struck by it all. Amen.
