All that we can see, measure, and study in this universe we live in, now appears to be just a tiny part of what’s there. What we can’t see in God’s creation reminds us that there is more glory revealed about our Creator to be appreciated.
The things we can observe and work with are made up of the basic elements and combinations of elements which are the building blocks of all the things we can see and touch in our world. The atoms that make up each element have a nucleus of protons and usually neutrons at their center. In their neutral state they have electrons surrounding the nucleus. Now we know that even those protons and neutrons are composed of various types of things we call quarks. The light we see is associated with packets of wave energy we call photons. There are also many other particles and other building blocks that make up the observable universe God made. [For more information see the article, “God’s Tiny Particles”.]
On the larger scale we see our Sun and Moon, the planets, and stars. With telescopes we see that there are clouds of particles and energy out there in space in and around distant galaxies.
We have recently discovered that there’s a lot more in this universe than we can see. We have measured unusual gravitational effects upon galaxies and upon light that reaches us from deep space. The speed of objects orbiting within the galaxies at great distances from their center indicates that there are other influences upon them than just the gravitational effects of the planets, stars, and other objects we can see within the galaxies. It’s estimated that this invisible matter makes up much more of the physical universe than what we’re now able to observe. This larger mass of the universe God made gives off and reflects no observable light so it has been referred to as “Dark Matter”. There is strong evidence that it’s there, but we can’t see it.
Something appears to be speeding up the moving of galaxies away from one another. It’s an influence greater than the attractive force produced by gravity which would pull things together. We don’t know how to observe or identify this repelling influence. For now, it’s referred to as “Dark Energy”. NASA and other researchers estimate that the visible things we can detect and observe make up only about 5% of the universe. Dark Matter makes up about 27% of the universe. The remaining 68% or so of the Matter-Energy Continuum is said to be made up of this Dark Energy. The energy we are familiar with is related to detectable particles, or the effects upon space generated by the presence of observable matter. This dark form of energy seems to permeate space itself. Things aren’t as empty as they sometimes seem to be to us mere creatures.
The more closely we study this vast universe, the more humbling it becomes. We realize we are but creatures, part of what our Creator brought into existence to display his power and glory (Psalm 19:1-2). Beneath it all is the power of our Creator holding all things together and giving everything the forms he has made us able to observe and measure.
The scientific method we use to study this physical universe is based upon what we have observed and are able to measure in some way. All through history we have seen scientific models abandoned when we realize that the small sample of what we had seen up to that time didn’t fully represent the bigger picture.
The Earth that seemed to be flat, turned out to be a sphere. The sun and stars which seemed to orbit the Earth were proven not to be what we thought they were. Instead, we along with the other planets, planetoids, asteroids, and comets in our local system are orbiting the sun. The stars are out beyond our solar system. They only seem to orbit us because our earth is rotating on an axis and is revolving around the sun.
There are boundaries to what we call Science. Our theories and scientific models are built upon only what the God who made us intended us to be able to observe. There’s more about our physical universe than that. Deuteronomy 29:29 cautions us when it says, “The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.”
To open our eyes to appreciate God’s glory in all the things he made, the Holy Spirit applies to lost hearts the redeeming work of Jesus the Promised Messiah. In our fallen state we see objects, creatures, spectra of light, and other evidences of God’s creative wonders, but we suppress the magnificent glory revealed in them (Romans 1:8-20). As those who trust in the work of our Savior, confident that he paid the penalty of our sins in our place, we are made able to behold the wonders of his glory which were dark to us when we were blind to that message of the universe. For those who sincerely rest in Christ, we were blind, but now we see.
(Bible quotations are from the English Standard Version unless otherwise noted.)
Bob Burridge ©2019