Light in the cosmos
I’ve been journeying with Madeleine L’Engle among the stars, trying to grasp the majesty of the heavens and yet hold confidently to God’s intimacy with humanity. Listening to Silicone Boone has given lyrics to much of my own experience. I’m enjoying these today:
Charged and luring where you fly Are you the flicker of a sign and wonder Or just some great misfire
- (Silicone Boone, Diamond)
The stars have long been a portal into the wonder of God’s power and majesty, but the mysteries we’ve uncovered from their light complicate our notions of God’s handiwork. The unfathomable distance, the speed of expansion, the raging fire and cold darkness of the cosmos all serve to stretch one’s mental framework for God, faith, and human dignity.
The imaginations of some scientists view all these facts and conclude that it’s without meaning, a random blaze destined for death. Sadly, these scientists leave no room in their hearts for the mystery and are, in the words of Albert Einstein, “as good as a burnt out candle (L'Engle, pg 1000)”
A dialogue in Dragons in the Waters mirrors my own doubt. To quote Simon,
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If [God] has all of these galaxies and all of these stars and all of these planets, I wouldn't think he'd have much time left over for people.
The wise Aunt Leonis acknowledges later in the dialogue,
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I'm still part of a simpler world than yours, a world in which it was easier to believe in God.
She expands,
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Despite Darwin and the later prophets of science, I grew up in a world in which my elders taught me that the planet earth was the chief purpose of the Creator, and that all the stars in the heavens were put there entirely for our benefit, and that humankind is God's only real interest in the universe. It didn't take as much imagination and courage then as it does now to believe that God has time to be present at a deathbed, to believe that human suffering does concern him, to believe that he loves every atom of his creation, no matter how insignificant.
It is not the elders of theology who have ventured into the darkness and returned with revelation. It is the elders of poetry, of fiction and art and story, who have braved the great fears and returned with light. Thanks be to God for the courage of Madeliene L’Engle, C. S. Lewis, Albert Einstein, and the coming generations who resist lingering over the comfort of their systems to pursue God in the wild.