Creative Power -"The Maker of Heaven and Earth" -"Raise Your Eyes High Up and See"

As you may know, our sun is a star. It appears larger than the stars we see at night because, compared with them, it is quite close.  How powerful is it?  At its core, the sun is about 27,000,000 degrees Fahrenheit. If you could take a pinhead-sized piece of the sun's core and put it here on the earth, you could not safely  stand within 90 miles of that tiny heat source!  Ever second, the sun emits energy equivalent to the explosion of many hundreds of millions of nuclear bombs. 
star differs from any star in glory."
The sun is so huge that over 1,300, 000 of our earths could fit inside it.  Is the sun an unusually large star? No, astronomers call it a yellow dwarf.  The apostle Paul wrote that "star differs from any star in glory."  (1 Corinthians 15:41)  He could not have known how true those inspired words are.  There is a star so huge that if it were placed right where the sun is, our earth would be inside it. Another giant star so placed would reach  all the way to Saturn-although that planet is so far from the earth it took a spacecraft four years to get there, traveling over 40 times  faster than a bullet fired from a powerful handgun! 

Even more awesome than the size of the stars is their number.  In fact, the Bible suggests that the stars are virtually  innumerable, as difficult to count as "the sand of the sea>"  (Jeremiah 33:22)  This statement implies that there are far more stars than the naked eye can see. After all, if a Bible-writer, such as Jeremiah, had looked up at the night sky and had tried to count the visible stars, he would have counted only three thousand or so, for that is how many the unaided human eye can detect on  clear night.  That number might be comparable to the number of grains in a mere handful of sand.  In reality, though, the number of stars is overwhelming, like the sand of the sea. Who could count such a number? 

Isaiah 40:26 answers:  "Raise your eyes high up and see.  Who has created  these things?  It is the One who is bringing forth the army of them even by number, all of whom he calls even by name."  Psalm 147:4 says:  "He is counting the number of the stars." What is the "number of the stars"?  That is not a simple question.  Astronomers estimate  that there are over 100 billion stars in our Milky Way galaxy alone."  But ours  is just one of many galaxies, and many of those swarm  with more stars. How many galaxies are there?  Some astronomers  have estimated  50 billion. Others have calculated that there may be as many as 125 billion. So man cannot even determine the number of galaxies, let alone the exact sum of all the billions of stars they contain. Yet, Jehovah knows that number. Moreover, he gives each star its own name!

our awe can only increase when we contemplate the size of galaxies.  The Milky Way galaxy has been estimated to measure some 100,000 light-years across. Picture a beam  of light traveling at the tremendous speed of 186,000 miles each second. It would take that beam  100,000 years to traverse our galaxy! And some galaxies are many times the size of ours.  The Bible says that Jehovah is "stretching out" these vast heavens as if they were mere fabric.  (Psalm 104:2)  He also orders the movements of  these creations. From the smallest speck of interstellar dust to the mightiest galaxy, everything moves according to physical laws that God has formulated  and put into effect.  (Job 38:31-33)  Thus, scientists have likened  the precise movements o the celestial bodies to the choreography of  an elaborate ballet!  Think, then, of the One who has created these things.  Do you not stand  in awe of the God having such immense creative powers?  

Next time: Creative Power-"The Maker of Heaven and Earth" -"The Maker of the Earth by His Power"

From the book: Draw Close to Jehovah