Cosmic Reality
Some of the stars that we see are just light that started from their sources over thirteen billion years ago. So eternity is the only way we can conceive of the magnitude of our creator and the miraculous place we are in.
Man has in the last decades sent unmanned space shots that have landed on different targets: a comet, an asteroid, and many of the planets in the solar system. We've even sent a probe that passed by the four gas giant planets and out of the solar system. We are planning manned trips back to the moon, and companies and countries are competing to be the first to land a man on our "nearby" neighbor several million miles away - Mars.
Scientists estimate there are 700 billion billion planets. We can today see the light from a star over 13 billion light-years away. So the universe is a very big place!
Though space travel is relatively slow now and we don’t quite know how we’ll accomplish it, many of us feel that our scientists will figure out a way for men to travel to some very distant stars and planets-perhaps ones even billions of light years away. We feel there is probably a way to bring this about in the incredible and complex universe in which we live, once we figure out more of its secrets.
With such vast expanses of space, it isn’t too much of a stretch to say that space is infinite. In fact, some scientists believe that space in the universe never ends. With light having traveled from distant stars to us for 13 billion years – it appears that time itself may be infinite – or at least of such a duration that it poses a huge challenge for us to comprehend it.
With this expansive universe existing over such a long stretch of time: could we still have anything to do with it once we breath our last? Could we play a part in this magnificent universe even after we die?
A related question is: has anyone ever effected the Universe after they died? If the answer is yes: could our lives have meaning and relevance after we die?
All of us have the same questions - why are we here? What’s the purpose of my life? Will I matter after I die? Only one human being has died and returned to life to assure us about why we’re alive. Around 30 a.d. he said “before Abraham was I am” - his life and death and return to life are three of the best recorded historical facts we have.
They were recorded by well-known eyewitnesses whose accounts were read, distributed and confirmed by hundreds alive when the events took place. Historians have since recognized the cosmic significance of this man Jesus by referring to consequent history as B.C. and A.D.
Why should we believe it when someone says Jesus defeated death? Because his post-death appearances were witnessed by as many as 500 people at one time! But you may say, these witnesses were Christians who had much to gain in seeing their religion advance as they claimed Jesus lived after having died, even though it wasn't true. But some non-Christians at that time said the same things that the Christians were saying. The Jewish historian Josephus said that this man Jesus, “if it be lawful to call him a man…was Christ...he appeared to them alive again the third day; as the divine prophets had foretold.” The Roman emperor at the time of Jesus' death was by no means a Christian. But the emperor said before the Senate that Jesus was divine, and threatened wrath against all the accusers of the Christians.
This Jesus explained that His Father created us in Him so that he can share their love through us and fill this earth and the universe with his beauty. This would extend even to the period after we had died in our life here on earth. This is why you’re here - his apostle Paul said “you are God’s workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which he has prepared beforehand that you should walk in them”.
These works include not only the dominion over the world that your maker has planned for your life on earth but also the intuitive development of the universe he has been preparing for you to share - in the powers of the age to come as we taste by faith power over weakness, sickness or death and deeper understanding of the workings of providence and the interaction of circumstances.
For all these reasons Jesus called us friends rather than servants - because a servant doesn’t understand what his master is doing, but a friend shares his master’s heart and knows why he acts as he does. Our future includes being a partner with the maker of this magnificent vast universe to develop it and improve it. He wants to show us in this life and the life to come how to administer his will throughout the numerous planets and stars; in our spiritual life with him through conscience, communion, and intuition.