Recently, a planet called Kepler-10b has been in the news – it’s about 1.4 times the size of Earth, and pretty much the first of its kind to be discovered – a similar sized ‘rocky’ planet to ours. Its discovery suggests that there are other planets out there that are of the same sort of size, and if we discover one which isn’t quite so close to its star as Kepler-10b (its surface temperature is around 1300 degrees Celsius) we may have discovered another place in the universe capable of supporting life.
It’s really quite exciting, especially for the physicists of our generation.
Before I start getting all geeky, I’ll return to the subject of the post. It hit me today that we are constantly searching for something more than there already is – we look to space to find distant phenomena or signs of life, we look more deeply into the structures that make us up (at places like CERN) to find out exactly what is going on. We’re massively curious about everything.
C.S. Lewis had some very interesting things to say about this in Mere Christianity - ‘If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.’ Hold on, you might say, science will satisfy my desire to know more about everything…
I firmly believe that this is not the case. However far science advances toward the total enlightenment, there will always be something that we haven’t quite got our heads around, and when we manage that we’ll realise that we don’t quite understand something else…and so on.
So often, we find ourselves in a place where all we are concerned with is this world and the issues we face here. I’m not in any way belittling this – the past few days have seen some rough things thrown up for many people around me. I’m thinking of things such as poverty, war, the price of petrol, the economic situation – you know the drill.
Someone said to me tonight (about some of those issues), ‘It’s fairly clear no-one is or can do anything about it or they would have by now.’
After having thought about that for a little while, I realised that actually that’s dead true. What a brilliant point! Well, not exactly, the point is, someone can do something about it, and He has!
The death of Jesus solved everything, because Jesus’ death was not on the same level as the worries and cares we have on earth. Jesus’ death was about defeating Satan, death and hell once and for all. If we can grab hold of this, then nothing else matters!
Of course, that’s a ridiculous thing to say. And it’s not true – of course what happens on earth matters. God cares deeply about this planet and the lives of those on it, and He’s done something there – it’s called the church. The church is the hope of the world – it is God’s plan A and He doesn’t have a plan B. It’s worthy of another post but in short, the church is responsible for being a worldwide, radical movement, seeking to turn society upside-down and inside-out. The gospel is only half about our personal relationship with God – the other half is about the world and what we are doing.
But get this – and it’s pretty simple – it doesn’t matter what happens to us if our lives are secure with Christ. Even death can’t keep us, because death isn’t the end of anything!
Thinking about God’s plan and solution makes me realise how much we often miss the point. There is more than this, there is more than us – we can worry all day about what is happening in the world and think that there’s no fixing it… But God’s solution takes a different line. He doesn’t tackle the problems of the world as they are, He makes a way for every individual to be saved, regardless of their situation, sex, race, age or abilities. God’s solution is concerned with a bigger picture than we often see.
I do hope this post isn’t too all over the place… Most of it is still very fresh in my mind. I’ll leave you with these words of Jesus:
Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?
“And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” - Matthew 6:25-34, NIV.
We must keep our eyes fixed on God’s kingdom and His righteousness, for that is what is important. When all else fades, He remains.
May the Lord bless you
and keep you;
may the LORD make His face shine on you
and be gracious to you;
may the LORD turn his face toward you
and give you peace. (Numbers 6:24-26, NIV).
