Start with two slices of bread, slather them with mayo-mustard, and then fill in the middle and put it all together - and enjoy!
One slice of bread is the first five words of the book - In the beginning God created. And the other slice of bread is the last five words of the book- in a coffin in Egypt.
Now we start piling on all the tasty items between the slices of bread.
Starting with: What did God create? The heavens and the earth.
We often gaze with wonder at the astonishing night skies above us. It's easy to proclaim My God, how great thou art!
I suppose even pagans and non-believers can sing those words when they stand enraptured by the dizzying display of stars and planets.
But for us, the greatest miracle is not up there in the sky, but right here beneath our feet - the Earth itself!
It did not always appear to be such a miracle.
When I was a child we didn't understand what parameters were necessary for a planet to support life.
Carl Sagan and others declared that there were only
2 conditions needed for a planet to support life -
we knew certain kinds of stars were necessary and a planet had to be just the right distance from these stars.
So pondering the vast landscape of space, the scientists estimated there were a high number of planets that could support life.
And so we set out to try to find those other beings that crowded the cosmic galaxies.
So far we haven't.
Now we realize that there are many more conditions needed to support life. As that number has soared,
the possibility of life "out there" has diminished.
Eric Metaxas' book, Miracles, explores these requirements and shows how truly remarkable our planet is!
In fact,
The number of variables necessary for life on a planet
in the universe has exploded, while the number of possible
planets that could conceivably support life has withered.
The number shrank down to zero years ago, and as the
number of variables necessary for life on a planet have
continued to grow, the number of planets that could support
life has sunk further and further below zero.
The odds against a planet supporting life have grown and
grown, to unfathomable and dizzying heights of impossibility.
-- From Miracles, by Eric Metaxas, Chapter 4.
Yet, here we are - living on this planet earth and even wondering about how we got here - and why!
Here are some of his examples:
1. The size of the earth is critical. If the earth were slightly larger, it would have more gravity, not just affecting our bodily weight, but also forcing gases like methane and ammonia to remain close to our surface. We can't breathe those gases.
If the earth were slightly smaller, and had less gravity, water vapor would not stay close to the surface, but would dissipate into the atmosphere, and we couldn't exist without water.
2. The speed at which our planet rotates is critical.
Any slower rate and temperature ranges between day and night would be deadly. Any faster would
produce impossibly high winds.
3. Another requirement for life on earth is the existence of an extremely large planet in our solar system.
Jupiter, because of its size and lack of density,
keeps us from being bombarded by comets.
It is 318 times the mass of earth and so 318 times the gravity, pulling comets toward it and deflecting them from the earth.
Comets and comet debris would strike us probably one thousand times more frequently, if Jupiter were not exactly where it is, whirling through the universe, shielding us from catastrophe.
Who would have thought that the presence of our giant neighbor would contribute so much to the presence of life on Earth?
4. Even more important than Jupiter is the miracle of our moon.
It's size - if any larger our tides would be more extreme. If any smaller the tides would be insufficient to cleanse coastal seawater and replenish its nutrients.
If the moon were any size other that the size it is, life as we know it would not exist.
There are many more considerations about the improbability (actually, impossibility) of life on our planet, including its exact tilt, and the bizarre property of water and dozens more.
So from scientific evidence of Carl Sagan's day, when scientists calculated that one in every ten thousand planets should support life, because there were only two known requirements, to today - that list has grown from 2 to almost 200 - and the existence of life anywhere in the universe is a miracle!
If we do the math, that means the odds of a planet supporting life are less than one in two to the seventy-third power - that's one followed by seventy-three zeroes!
Life on Earth is unique in the universe.
God saw all that He had made, and it was very good.
Genesis 1:31
God's creation of the heavens and the Earth pleased Him.
I recommend Eric Metaxas' book, Miracles. Read it and no longer take our beautiful planet for granted!
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