Is it just human folly to think I am the center of the universe? For the longest time, men thought the universe revolved around the earth, and, by extension, around man. We now realize we are but a small planet revolving around an average star at a far corner of the universe. And our sun is just one among countless stars. Our galaxy, the Milky Way, is just one among billions with each galaxy populated by at least a billion stars each. Given these huge numbers, the probability of other living, sentient and intelligent beings is indeed very high. Man is a tiny, almost an invisible speck, in this great scheme, a fleeting presence. It seems highly improbable that we are alone in the universe.
And yet, I can’t help but be amazed and awed by the mere fact that I am here. I was not born until everything needed for me to be alive and be born were in place: the stars, the moon and the sun; the earth, the plants, the animals and a livable environment; my country, my people and my parents. It took some billions of years to get everything and everyone ready for my coming. And it will take some more billions of years before my presence in the universe is finally worked out and come to a resolution. The smallest of objects in the universe (a quark) and the biggest (a quasar), I stand right in the middle in size within that range. That places me right smack in the center/middle of the time continuum and of the size/space continuum. Am I special or am I especial?
I wake up each day, always gifted with another day of life. I work and labor to be alive but everything I need to be alive is within my reach: the air that I breath, the water that I drink, the plants and animals that I eat, the people whom I live with. Is it folly therefore to believe and trust in the care of a heavenly Father who knows what I need even before I ask Him? Is it vanity to sing Him praises for creating the universe for me to eventually come into it? Is it pure wishful thinking on my part that He has revealed Himself to me through His son Jesus Christ who taught me about God’s fatherhood over us all? He also taught us how to pray to Our Father in words that have gone down to us through the generations.
Jesus said to his disciples:
“In praying, do not babble like the pagans,
who think that they will be heard because of their many words.
Do not be like them.
Your Father knows what you need before you ask him.”
“This is how you are to pray:
Our Father who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name,
thy Kingdom come,
thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread;
and forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us;
and lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
Matthew 6:7-15