Yesterday, my dad and I went to space!
Okay, so we didn’t ACTUALLY go to space. We didn’t feel the weightlessness of zero gravity or experience the sensation of a rocket launch, but to us—we went to space! A Virtual Reality experience just opened in Houston, enabling people to take a virtual tour of the International Space Station—both inside and out! At one point, I stepped outside of the virtual breakdown of the station and quickly found myself looking at the curvature of the Earth speeding under me at almost 5 miles per second. It was unlike anything I had ever seen before. So few people have had the opportunity to see the Earth in that way, so it was pretty cool to have a chance to see it in that way too (even if it was just through a headset).
The entire experience was really quite humbling if I’m being honest. So often, we think of the Earth as this massive thing in space, mainly because we live on it—it’s all we’ve ever known. However, glimpsing at the world we live on from 254 miles above shows just how small the Earth really is, and by comparison, how small we truly are. Standing there, watching the continents pass below me, reminded me of something one of our instructors told us. In Genesis 1-2, we see God creating EVERYTHING in the known Universe, from the smallest organisms to the most prominent galaxies. However, what’s so special about creation is that out of everything God created, He started with our planet (Genesis 1:1-2).
- On the first day, He creates light for the earth (Genesis 1:3-5).
- On the second day, He separates the earth’s waters, creating the skies and the surface waters (Genesis 1:6-8)
- On the third day, He brought dry land and separated the surface waters, and made the dry land to be filled with vegetation (Genesis 1:9-13)
It wasn’t until the fourth day that the rest of the Universe was created! We can look at images taken from space that show incredible and massive galaxies and nebulas that make our Earth look like an atom, but God didn’t create those first. He started with this tiny blue planet, where mankind would dwell.
Now I don’t honestly know why God did this—but I definitely have some ideas. In God starting with our planet, He has set everything in the Universe around us to show His beauty and power. Paul states in Romans 1:20 that “since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse” (NAS, emph. added). Everything that has been created by God has been placed perfectly to be a testament to His awesomeness! The Earth itself is a testament to God’s perfect design and might. While some people look at the world and think we are just here by chance, God has shown us in everything that He is the great Creator!
We may never get to experience the thrill of spaceflight or the excitement of seeing the world from so high above, but we can still see what God has made. We have been truly blessed to not only be in God’s creation but to see it in every direction we can imagine. The next time you step outside or even see an image of space or the earth on TV or on your phone, take just a minute to remember how special we are to God. He created everything so that we might see Him!
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