Excerpt from Psalm 150

"Praise the Lord!  Praise God in the sanctuary; praise God in God's mighty firmament!"

Reflection by Quinn G. Caldwell

When the ancients tilted their heads back and contemplated the night sky, they were filled with the same kind of wonder you are when you do the same thing.  Which is why they thought God lived up there.

But they hadn't seen nothin' yet.  Twenty years ago today, the Hubble Space Telescope was launched.  Take a minute right now and do a Google image search for "Hubble."  Those are real.  The universe actually looks like that.  Just try to look at those images and not praise the Lord in the firmament.

Now do an image search for "Hubble ultra-deep field."  All that you see there exists in a field the same size as a 1mm by 1mm piece of paper held up a meter from your face.  Because of how long it took the light of those celestial bodies to reach us, seeing them is like looking back 13 billion years.

One of the best lines in all Christian hymnody is from "Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee": "Mortals, join the mighty chorus which the morning stars began."  Go back and look at those images again.  Those stars have been chanting "Holy, holy, holy" since time began.  Don't you think you ought to join in?

Prayer

The whole universe sings of your glory, O God most high, these 13 billion and more years.  Don't let it miss a note because I wasn't there to sing my part.  Praise you, praise you, praise you.  Selah.

About the Author Quinn G. Caldwell, a United Church of Christ minister, is the co-author, with Curtis J. Preston, of the Unofficial Handbook of the United Church of Christ, published by The Pilgrim Press.