It is now generally accepted that everything that there is in the universe started with one point of light exploding mightily in a big bang. And in that one cataclysmic moment, the entire universe came to be. Maybe Someone said, “Let there be light!” and that one point of light came to be and exploded to produce the big bang. Maybe He did not even to say but only think of the word “Light!” and it was so. Maybe we are just random thoughts in some infinite mind, gradually unfolding as He ruminates in His infinite intelligence.
Even up to now, we are going through the unfolding of all existence from that first big bang. We still hear echoes and see bits and pieces from that primordial moment. If we stop and be still, we can also catch echoes of those thoughts from that Infinite Intelligence. In silence and solitude, in the depths of my heart, I know that the darkness will eventually give way to light. I know that life will not be denied and will express itself in someway. I know that in there beginning there was no time nor space and in the end we come back to an eternity where there is no more time nor space.
I hear echoes and see reflections of this reality even in everyday life. The big bang has spawned endless other explosions as new and more stars are born. And we are but dust from past star-explosions. Dust did not remain dust but became the material from which life has emerged. And even when life decays, the rot and the decay of death gives birth to new and more life. Trees become homes and plants become food. Rivers are harnessed to serve life and the air is conquered to spread life. Man, catching whiffs of the creative mind that made the universe happen, creates wonders and technology and gadgets from what he finds around him.
The gradual unfolding of life in the universe has taken billions of years to get to where we are now. Man has learned and discovered a lot. But there is still a lot to learn and discover. How did something that started with a point of light give rise to a consciousness that can think and reason? How did that consciousness come around to asking who he is and why he is here at all? And how can consciousness and imagination and free will and conscience even come from inanimate star dust? Why would these conscious beings feel love and compassion and care for one another? And how can one man feed thousands from but seven loaves of bread?
That it took billions of years to get to where we are, it would seem man is but the logical outcome of a long series of random events. But if I but listen to the echoes and try to see glimpses from that primordial moment, I know that there is a loving God who called me out by name.
“Lord, let me hear your call and may I always respond to it in love.”
In those days when there again was a great crowd without anything to eat,
Jesus summoned the disciples and said,
“My heart is moved with pity for the crowd,
because they have been with me now for three days and have nothing to eat.
If I send them away hungry to their homes, they will collapse on the way,
and some of them have come a great distance.”
His disciples answered him, “Where can anyone get enough bread
to satisfy them here in this deserted place?”
Still he asked them, “How many loaves do you have?”
They replied, “Seven.”
He ordered the crowd to sit down on the ground.
Then, taking the seven loaves he gave thanks, broke them,
and gave them to his disciples to distribute, and they distributed them to the crowd.
Mark 8:1-10