How can two men look into the same sky and have totally different understandings of what they are actually seeing?
One man looked at the universe and turned it into a laboratory so he could discover certain secrets to make them known to the world. Another man saw the same universe as a declaration and revelation of something overwhelming — not requiring a mathematical explanation but rather adoration and wonder.
the life of research
Stephen Hawking was the scientist who, in spite of his physical limitation, spent his life seeking answers and explanations to questions and previous unknowns of the source, power, and elements that made up the universe.
His research focused on the black holes in the universe. Some of his conclusions opened the doors for others to do further research. Other conclusions were later proven incorrect. Early in his life, even before his disease, he declared himself to be an atheist, claiming there is no God. Therefore, his conclusions were:
We are each free to believe what we want, and it’s my view that the simplest explanation is; there is no God. No one created our universe, and no one directs our fate.
We are just an advanced breed of monkeys on a minor planet of a very average star. But we can understand the universe. That makes us something very special.
One can’t prove that God doesn’t exist. But science makes God unnecessary… The laws of physics can explain the universe without the need for a creator.
the life of acceptance
Rev. Billy Graham, an evangelist, now remembered merely as “Billy Graham, a child of God,” was another well known man.
He may not have pondered the information in a black hole. I am sure he never thought of himself or anyone else as "just an advanced breed of monkeys” or that “the laws of physics can explain the universe without the need for a creator.”
I would imagine, more than once, Billy Graham looked at the universe and declared:
Lord, our Lord, how majestic is Your Name in all the earth.
You have set Your glory in the heavens. — Psalm 8:1
Day after day they pour speech, night after night they reveal knowledge. — Psalm 19:2
Hawking spent his life trying to discover what he could learn from his research and announce his discoveries about the black holes to the world. Billy Graham spent his life telling people what he had discovered from the Bible and his own personal experiences. Billy Graham declared:
When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have set in place, what is man that You are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them? — Psalm 8:3-4
God created the world because He wanted everyone to know He cared for them.
Unfortunately, it appears that
Stephen Hawking attempted to discover the secrets of the universe and never discovered the Creator.
So the next time you are outside at night and look up at the heavens observing the glory of the Lord, it would be a perfect time to say a simple but sincere, “Thank You, Lord, for Caring.”
Looking up with you, I am,
As Lent commences on Ash Wednesday, we are entering a time of introspection and prayer leading to Easter. Let us reflect on the significance of death preceding resurrection, urging readers to embrace a daily practice of surrendering self in preparation for our spiritual transformation.