Recently, NASA released the very first photos from the James Webb Space Telescope. These are the highest powered, most sophisticated images we’ve ever seen of the night sky.
While the Carina Nebula is my favorite, I highly recommend you Google the first deep field image of galaxy cluster SMACS 0723. If each of the galaxies pictured is roughly the size and scope of our own galaxy, the Milky Way, then we can safely assume that each galaxy pictured contains somewhere around 100 billion planets. #notatypo
Multiply the number of galaxies by 1 billion and reckon that the scale of what we are looking at is almost beyond comprehension.
Further, NASA reports that if you were to hold a grain of sand up at arm’s length to the night sky, this photo only displays the portion of the sky that the grain of sand would cover!
Nature, the Franciscans proclaim, is our first teacher about God. They are echoing Psalm 19 which says that the heavens keep telling the wonders of God and the Apostle Paul, when he writes to the church in Rome that God’s invisible attributes are clearly seen through all that God has made.
Look near or far, and you can discover the cosmos is boundless and majestic as a reflection of a boundless and majestic God.
I’ve been humbled and captivated by these photos as I reflect on the words of Colossians which says that all things were created through, and “hold together” in, Christ. Those stars, those galaxies are our sisters since we are held together in tandem by Christ. That nebula, a nursery for stars, is our brother in Christ.
If that is true for a distant galaxy cluster, how much more is it true for our neighbors, even the ones with whom we disagree?
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