Our planet is on the outer edge of our galaxy, The Milky Way. Light from stars on the opposite edge takes 100,000 years to reach us—and that is traveling more than 186,000 miles per second. Our sun is only one among two hundred billion stars in our galaxy. Yet our galaxy is only one of more than a hundred billion "milky ways" in the observable universe. Think about that a moment. Or, as the ancient psalmist would say, Selah!
In the constellation Aquarius is one galaxy that is two hundred million light years wide. Astronomers believe that galaxy to be twelve billion years old, more or less. That means that it was born a relatively brief two billion years after The Big Bang. By comparison, our own solar system is quite young at four and a half billion years old.
Advertisement
If your mind is not yet boggled, drive out far away from city lights some night—preferably in the desert when the moon is down. Look up into the sky and consider with the psalmist how majestic the Creator is. The psalmist sang, "the heavens declare the glory of God" (
Ps. 19:1a).