In the Vastness of the Universe, I Am
In a distant corner of the universe, some 13.5 billion light years away,
there is this seemingly empty space.
On closer look and deeper focus,
it is filled with a billion galaxies,
each with a trillion stars
which probably have several planets revolving around them.
In some of those several trillions planets,
there must exist some sentient beings,
perhaps more intelligent, more civilized and more loving then we.
This piece of the universe is so big that
theoretically, it cannot exist.
But it is out there.
I am one of the billion humans on Earth,
Earth that is but a pale blue dot in the vastness of space.
Move back some billion light years away
and earth disappears into insignificance.
And yet, against all the evidence before me,
I believe in my heart or hearts and in the depths of my being
that I matter
that I am not insignificant
that I am not but dust from the stars
that I have been made in a special and awesome way.
I have sung since the beginning of time:
When I consider your heavens,
the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars,
which you have set in place,
what is mankind that you are mindful of them,
human beings that you care for them
Like the Syro-Phoenician, I dare believe.
I may be insignificant in the vastness of the universe.
But I have moments of significance in my life
when I mattered in the lives of some people,
when I surprised even myself by what I was able to accomplish,
when I brought people joy and happiness,
and sometimes even heartaches and disappointments.
In those moments, I felt that He who made all the stars and galaxies
was moving mightily in my life
that He who made all this vast reality also had me in mind
as He was churning out all the wonders I see.
And in the midst of all this wonders,
He tells me I am the most wonderful of all His creations.
“Lord, you created in me a heart that longs for You. Affirm me in faith and in my hope.”
Soon a woman whose daughter had an unclean spirit heard about him.
She came and fell at his feet.
The woman was a Greek, a Syrophoenician by birth,
and she begged him to drive the demon out of her daughter.
He said to her, “Let the children be fed first.
For it is not right to take the food of the children
and throw it to the dogs.”
She replied and said to him,
“Lord, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s scraps.”
Then he said to her, “For saying this, you may go.
The demon has gone out of your daughter.”
When the woman went home, she found the child lying in bed
and the demon gone.
Mark 7:24-30