Last month, NASA released spectacular, never-before-seen images taken from its new James Webb Space Telescope that is parked a million miles away in space. Webb’s capabilities trace galaxies back to the beginning of cosmic time. 

That means the universe isn’t eternal. It hasn’t always been here; it had a beginning. Scientists have known this for the last hundred years. The late agnostic astronomer Robert Jastrow, founder of NASA’s Goddard Institute of Space Studies conceded: “Now we see how the astronomical evidence leads to a biblical view of the origin of the world…. The chain of events leading to man commenced suddenly and sharply in a definite moment in time, in a flash of light and energy.”

Scientists also adhere to the fundamental scientific principle known as the Law of Causality, namely that everything that has a beginning has a cause. Since scientists concede that the universe had a beginning, the question must follow: “what or who began it?” In other words, nothing, including the universe, can create itself. That’s a scientific fact. Something outside of space, time and matter had to be the cause agent.

That cause must be pretty awesome. I believe — and many scientists have also believed as well — that the universe has an intelligent designer. And many also believe the biblical declaration that this designer is God. “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1). 

Consider this: We live in a solar system with our sun (a dwarf star) in the middle. Our sun is one of 100 billion stars in the Milky Way galaxy. If you multiply the number of galaxies in the universe (about 200 billion) times 100 billion stars, it equals 200 billion trillion stars. This is a mind-boggling number to us, but even more unfathomable is the biblical statement that “God determines the number of stars and calls them each by name” (Psalm 147:4). 

If you’ve ever looked into a telescope to see the vastness of space, you can’t help but feel insignificant. But the Bible tells us that the awesome God who created it all thinks otherwise. Jesus declared, “even the hairs of your head are all numbered” (Luke 12:7). The same One who created all those amazing stars and galaxies wants us to know that He loves us and desires that we love Him in return. As A.W. Tozer observed, “God loves us for ourselves. He values our love more than He values galaxies of newly created worlds.”

As the song, “Consider the stars,” says, “He who made all of this says ‘You’re worth more than this’ and holds you in His hands.” I think these are great things to remember next time we peer into the night sky.

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This article originally appeared in the September 2022 edition of STROLL The Canyons at Scenic Loop.

Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI