Pale Blue Dot

It’s the twentieth anniversary of the famous “pale blue dot” photo – Earth as seen from Voyager 1 while on the edge of our solar system (approximately 3,762,136,324 miles from home). 
Carl Sagan: "Look again at that dot.  That's here.  That's home.  That's us.  On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives.  The aggregate of our joy and suffering... every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every superstar, every 'supreme leader,' every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there - on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam. The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds."

Carl Sagan describes this so eloquently and hits the nail on the head at how inconsequential we people and our grand ideas and notions are in comparison to the vast universe.  AND YET - Today I am reminded to think about the God who created that universe, and yet loves me "this speck upon that blue dot" so much that he knows how many hairs are on my head.  UNFATHOMABLE.  INDESCRIBABLE.  I stand in AWE.

Genesis 1:16-17 -  "God made the two great lights, the greater light to govern the day, and the lesser light to govern the night; He made the stars also.  God placed them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth,  and to govern the day and the night, and to separate the light from the darkness; and God saw that it was good." 

Psalm 19:1-3 - "The heavens are telling the glory of God, their expanse declares the work of His hands.  Day after day they pour forth speech, and night after night they tell us what they know.  There is no place where there is speech where their voices are not heard." (paraphrase)

Matthew 10:30 - "And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered." - Jesus of Nazareth, The Christ

This blog post was inspired by:  http://blog.jmlynch.org/2010/02/13/pale-blue-dot/ 

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