GOD IN ALL: PART 1 - GOD'S PLAN

GOD IN ALL: Part 1 - God's Plan

God's Plan

Look up into the late night sky

It's vastness who can comprehend

Galaxies! Billions and Billions

Helix, Whirlpool, Sombrero, Black Eye

Stars daily born, stars daily die

Spectacular! Miraculous!

God's splendor on display

One hundred light years across,

Sprawl Milky Way's four spiral arms

Suspended within lies the earth

A most privileged place

Far from the centre of chaos

Far from harm near Orion's arm

Unfathomable! Ingenious!

God's plan for man

Around the sun each planet spins

Clockwork precision and order

Earth is spared most comet collisions

Drawn away by Jupiter's pull

Mathematical! Logical!

Copernicus, Newton and Einstein,

Discovering God's grand design

Consider our sun, brought forth on day four

Fifteen million degrees at its core

A thermonuclear fusion reactor

Just one second of solar power,

Is more than all human history's yield

Fearsome! Mighty! Life-giving source

Whom but God can wield it's force

Our moon was formed just the right size

Needed to keep Earth's tilt stabilized

Keeping our seasons in order

And our days from being much shorter

Who can fathom a total eclipse of the sun

As moon in transit becomes one

Magnificent! A perfect fit!

All part of God's intent

A plus or minus five percent

In Earth's orbit has consequence

Too hot, too cold for life to thrive

This sweet spot keeps us all alive

Earth's mass is also optimal

Too large, too small, no life at all

No air to breathe, all seas no shores

Life not by chance but God's good grace

Love planned before time began
With Jesus our sacrificed lamb

©Tavane Nelson, Jan 10 2019

We have a cottage at Long Point, Ontario which also happens to be one of the darkest areas in Southern Ontario to view the stars. Every summer I wait for a new moon to get a perfect view of the Milky Way galaxy. Even more spectacular is a new moon in August that coincides with the annual Perseid Meteor shower. I lay out on my blanket to watch the colorful meteors with long tails streak across the sky at a rate of almost one per minute. I can't help but feel my own insignificance and smallness in the universe as I ponder the infinite facets of our creator.

He determines the number of the stars
    and calls them each by name 

Great is our Lord and mighty in power;
    his understanding has no limit.

Psalm 147:4-5

I set out to write a poem to honor God's creation, but immediately felt unequal to the task as there are just no words or enough verses to even begin to scratch the surface. My poems are normally relatively short, but in order to provide a snapshot, I  decided to write an epic poem covering about 15-20 verses, beginning with what is large and going down to what is microscopic. Part 1 covers the universe, the solar system, the sun and the earth. You will have to wait several months for the next installment!

credit: Hubblesite.org. Sombrero Galaxy

Even more wondrous to me is that before the existence of time, God  had a plan because of his great love for us:

  He has saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time,  but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.

2 Timothy 1:9-11

Obviously God is not bound by time, and together with Jesus, created everything we see. What an awesome God!

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God,
 and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. 
 Through him all things were made;
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth
John 1:1-2,14


Below I've added interesting information I discovered during my research. Enjoy!

• Earth has one of the best views of the universe because we live away from the galactic centre, radiation, and debris. The band of space where we live near Orion's Arm offers a clear view. I believe God wanted us to discover his creation!
• A new study suggests there are around 700 quintillion (a 7 followed with 20 zeros) planets in the universe but only one like earth.
• Earth is the only planet that we know of that has conditions for life to exist inside our solar system. The odds of earth even existing at all are slim. NASA scientists have scanned tens of thousands of other universes without evidence of advanced civilizations. Earth is indeed a privileged planet.
• The universe and solar system are based on advanced mathematical laws that suggest intelligent design from a creator. Newton's Version of Kepler's Third Law, explains the laws governing planetary motion even beyond our solar system.
• Neptune was discovered through these mathematical equations by French mathematician Urbin Le Verrier in 1846.
• Understanding calculus, means you can understand  the stars. Scientist understand that mathematics is the language of the universe, and allows us to explore beyond our reach.
• Albert Einstein's math allows us to understand gravity and the universe in a new way. 
• Jupiter attracts most comet collisions away from earth and is our great protector. Astronomists say without a Jupiter type planet at the right distance away from Earth, life would be difficult or impossible. No other Jupiter type planets have as yet to be discovered in other solar systems.
• Our Sun is ideal for life on earth as it does not project super flares like other suns, and is also the perfect size and distance from Earth.
• Our sun is a stable hydrogen bomb that gives off more energy every second than a billion major cities would use in an entire year.
• The sun is 93 million miles away from earth and 109 times the diameter of earth and over a million times the volume of Earth. It represents 99.86 of all the solar system's mass. About 1.3 million Earths could fit inside our sun.
• the largest sun discovered in the observable universe is UY Scuti, with a radius 1,700 times the size of our sun. The next largest sun is VY Canis Majoris, and it is estimated that 9.3 billion of our suns would fit into Canis Majoris. 
• Light travels at the speed of approximately 300,000 km per second. It takes 8 minutes and 20 seconds for light to reach the earth from the sun. One light year would equal 9.5 trillion km. It would take 200,000 light years to travel across The Milky Way. It would take 749,000,000,000 (749 million) light years to travel to the nearest galaxy.
• Arno Penzias (Nobel prize winner in Physics) says "Astronomy leads us to a unique event, a universe which was created out of nothing, one with the very delicate balance needed to provide exactly the conditions required to permit life, and one which has an underlying, one might say, supernatural plan."
• Alexander Polyakov (Soviet Mathematician) states: We know that nature is described by the best of all possible mathematics because God created it.
• "Science is not only compatible with spirituality, it's a profound source of spirituality, said Carl Sagan. (Famous astronomer, cosmologist, astrophysicist, astrobiologist and author).
• Albert Einstein was quoted as saying "There must be something behind the energy" and "Every scientist becomes convinced that the laws of nature manifest the existence of a spirit vastly superior to that of men."  

credit: Hubblesite.org Whirlpool galaxy