When I look at a photograph like this one of the Sombrero Galaxy, and recognize that it really is a photograph, not a computer-generated image, or a painting, or something merely imagined in an artist’s mind, it amazes me and makes me feel very small.
The Sombrero Galaxy is aproximately 29.3 million light years from earth and about 50,000 light years in diameter. It’s center is estimated to be 1 billion times as dense as our sun. Our earth, in comparison, would not be as large as the finest possible needle prick on this image. The light we see here in this image left the Sombrero Galaxy more than 29 million ago. We are looking more than 29 million years into the past.
As I look upon images of the vastness of space, and consider the glorious heavenly bodies therein and the measures of distance and time that are beyond my comprehension, it seems to me incomprehensible that life itself should not be eternal. I am led to ask, as did the psalmist:
“When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour. ” (Psalms 8:3-5)
Where was I when the light in this image first departed the Sombrero Galaxy? What was I doing? Where will I be when today’s light from our earth reaches 29.3 mega-light years into space? What will I be doing? What will life be like then? How those thoughts bring into focus the infinitely short duration and eternal significance of my time here on earth.
When I look at such images, the statement of Dieter F. Uchtdorf, Second Counselor in the First Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, takes on greater meaning for me:
“…while we may look at the vast expanse of the universe and say, “What is man in comparison to the glory of creation?” God Himself said we are the reason He created the universe! His work and glory—the purpose for this magnificent universe—is to save and exalt mankind. In other words, the vast expanse of eternity, the glories and mysteries of infinite space and time are all built for the benefit of ordinary mortals like you and me. Our Heavenly Father created the universe that we might reach our potential as His sons and daughters.
This is a paradox of man: compared to God, man is nothing; yet we are everything to God. While against the backdrop of infinite creation we may appear to be nothing, we have a spark of eternal fire burning within our breast. We have the incomprehensible promise of exaltation—worlds without end—within our grasp. And it is God’s great desire to help us reach it.”
It is “God’s great desire” to help us return to Him, to inherit all He has created for us. As the psalmist said, we are “children of the most High.” (Psalm 82:6). How comforting that is in my smallness in the universe.
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