Time & Space
This past week my husband walked into the house and said, “You all should come outside and see the moon and planets.” I put on some shoes and went to see what was so exciting. Outside, the sun had nearly set, but you could still see its radiant orange and purple glow as it vanished below the horizon.
Looking up into the night sky you could see a crescent moon and two very distinct planets. While looking at the crescent moon you could see the outline of the entire moon, but only the sliver lit by the sun was shining brightly. Jupiter and Venus were also in full view. In addition to the sun, moon, and planets visible all at once, the stars in the sky were beginning to twinkle.
Even now, writing this, I am in awe of this world God has created for us.
It sort of blows my mind when I think about us spinning through space at speeds faster than we can even comprehend, but standing firmly with our feet planted on the ground, looking up at other celestial bodies moving through time and space as well. God’s majesty and wonder are so evident.
Imagine living long ago - without the internet, maps of the sky, or telescopes. Imagine watching year after year as the night sky changed, season by season, while you learned when to plant and when to harvest. When to rest and when to work. Imagine helping to unpack the rhythm of time and being involved in creating calendars to record annual events.
All throughout Scripture we see God ordering time and space.
Genesis 1:5 (CJB) - In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was unformed and void, darkness was on the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God hovered over the surface of the water. Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and God divided the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. So there was evening, and there was morning, one day.
Leviticus 23:1-3 (CSB) The Lord spoke to Moses: “Speak to the Israelites and tell them: These are my appointed times, the times of the Lord that you will proclaim as sacred assemblies. Work may be done for six days, but on the seventh day there is to be a Sabbath of complete rest, a sacred assembly. You are not to do any work; it is a Sabbath to the Lord wherever you live.”
Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 (CSB) There is an occasion for everything, and a time for every activity under heaven: a time to give birth and a time to die; a time to plant and a time to uproot; a time to kill and a time to heal; a time to tear down and a time to build; a time to weep and a time to laugh; a time to mourn and a time to dance; a time to throw stones and a time to gather stones; a time to embrace and a time to avoid embracing; a time to search and a time to count as lost; a time to keep and a time to throw away; a time to tear and a time to sew; a time to be silent and a time to speak; a time to love and a time to hate; a time for war and a time for peace.
Matthew 2:1-2 (TBFE) When Jesus was born, in Bethlehem of Judaea, at the time when Herod was king, some wise and learned men came to Jerusalem from the East. ‘Where is the one’, they asked, ‘who has been born to be king of the Jews? We have seen his star rising in the East, and we have come to worship him.’
John 1:1-5 (CSB) In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. All things were created through him, and apart from him not one thing was created that has been created. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. That light shines in the darkness, and yet the darkness did not overcome it.
From the beginning we see God speaking the world into existence. We see God placing the planets in their orbit. We see God ordering the rotation of the earth to create a habitat that could accommodate human life.
We also see how God connected his people to time and space.
If you read through Leviticus 23 you can see all of the feasts and festivals laid out by God for Israel. These annual holy days are established around the sun and the moon to make it easy for the community to remember and pass along from generation to generation.
When you work your way through the book of John you can see Jesus connected to all of these annual holy days, and you can see how all of these feasts and festivals have been pointing to Jesus from the beginning. You can also see how the first Passover observed by Moses and the Israelites, before fleeing Egypt, and the annual remembrance thereafter is center stage as Jesus becomes the ultimate Passover lamb.
For as long as there has been day and night, the sky has been telling a story of a God that is more creative, more loving, more just, more mysterious, and more magnificent than we can even think or imagine.
I invite you to pause this week and stand under the stars. Give yourself a few minutes to marvel at the God of the universe and his unfailing, unending, love for us.
~ Melissa