He also made the stars

Genesis 1:16b

Astronomers estimate that there are 200 billion trillion stars in the universe. 200 sextillion stars. That’s a lot. That’s a number beyond comprehension.

In the first creation story in Genesis, that stupendous feat of power warrants 5 words: He also made the stars. The writers of Genesis, when they wrote down this account must have thought that all those other pinpricks of light weren’t that significant. Today, we know better.

The universe is mind-blowingly vast, and our tiny planet is just a corner of creation. It seems like every other day some telescope on or in orbit around the Earth makes a discovery of yet another mysterious and unexplained celestial phenomenon. Space is more than we can conceive of, even in this space-age. You’d think the creation of the stars would deserve more than a blurb.

But then again, there’s a certain elegance, even nonchalance, to describing God’s power and might in such an off-handed way. “Oh yeah, while God was busy putting our world together, God was also making the entire universe because our God just does stuff like that.”

Some of us struggle to find the perfect, most flowery ways to describe God and what God does, but there’s nothing flowery here. “He also made the stars.” As if it’s no big deal. As if! (Hey, I would have rested after the fourth day!)

The mostly up-close-and-personal version of creation that we read about in Genesis is an account of how the things all around us (including us) came to be. So why not let the astronomers tackle the distant galaxies and quasars and black holes? They’ll find God’s fingerprints all over them.

But we needn’t traverse sextillions of miles to see those fingerprints. They’re right here. God’s presence is made known to us right here. Within our reach we have evidence that the Creator has been here. That’s where the story wants our focus, to know creation around us as a clear reflection of our Creator.

“And God made the humans.”

Nah, it doesn’t sound right. I’m glad humans get a few meaty sentences in the story. And it’s okay that the stars didn’t get a lot of coverage in Genesis 1. No biggie. God can do anything and doesn’t even need to brag about it.

God’s power may be a mystery of incomprehensible proportions to us,

But to God…

It’s all in a day’s work.

Have a geat week,

Mitch