Do you re­mem­ber how, as a child, you so­me­ti­mes lay down on the snow-co­ve­red ground and ga­zed at the star­ry sky? Ma­y­be you even re­cog­ni­zed some of the cons­tel­la­ti­ons. Do you re­mem­ber that stran­ge fee­ling? That space see­med so lar­ge and alien, won­der­ful and fas­ci­na­ting. Ma­y­be even a bit frigh­te­ning.

I can still cap­tu­re that fee­ling. I re­mem­ber I was qui­te cer­tain that the stars twink­led if you sta­red at them long enough. I won­de­red about that all. What is space, and how far does it re­ach? What is my place in re­la­ti­on to it?

Now I feel luc­ky that I do not need to un­ders­tand what space is, how far and how hot the sun is, or what we mean by a black hole. Even as an adult, I can lean back on the snow and simp­ly ad­mi­re the star­ry sky. I can feel enc­han­ted by the shim­me­ring dan­ce of au­ro­ra bo­re­a­lis or the sud­den, unex­pec­ted shoo­ting star. I will le­a­ve all dis­cus­si­on and pon­de­ring of the sec­rets of the uni­ver­se to scien­tists.

I ap­p­re­ci­a­te the way the first li­nes of the Bib­le desc­ri­be the cre­a­ti­on of the world. God star­ted by cre­a­ting the he­a­vens and the earth. On the third day He cre­a­ted “the two great lights—the gre­a­ter light to have do­mi­ni­on over the day and the les­ser light to have do­mi­ni­on over the night—as well as the stars”. La­ter God al­lo­wed the man and wo­man He had cre­a­ted to rule over and pro­tect the whole of His cre­a­ti­on.

The story of cre­a­ti­on shows that hu­man re­a­son is not enough to gui­de our faith. Cre­a­ti­on is like a sign­post to faith. Faith is be­lief, not know­led­ge.

Man has been gi­ven a huge amount wis­dom, which has been used to de­ve­lop the most comp­lex and cu­ri­ous things. Man was even ab­le to en­ter space de­ca­des ago. But what is the con­se­qu­en­ce of all this wis­dom? One out­co­me is the inc­re­a­se of or­bi­tal deb­ris, which now cau­ses a risk col­li­si­on for sa­tel­li­tes. How small is man! As­pi­ring to rule and cont­rol space, yet unab­le to do it.

If, on a cold and star­ry night, I now want to cap­tu­re some the stran­ge fee­ling I had while watc­hing the stars as a child, I put on the pie­ce of mu­sic tit­led Da pa¬cem Do¬mi¬ne by Ar­vo Pärt. I can be trans­por­ted in­to the mys­ti­cal world of au­ro­ra bo­re­a­lis by Ola Gjei­lo’s The Nort¬hern Lights. It is awe­so­me to be ab­le to ima­gi­ne the star­ry sky while lis­te­ning to mu­sic! At such mo­ments I feel to­tal­ly en­com­pas­sed by the be­au­ty cre­a­ted and gif­ted by God.

Could we think that the uni­ver­se is a pic­tu­re of eter­nal life? We can un­ders­tand very lit­t­le of the uni­ver­se, no mat­ter how hard we try. We know about li­mits, be­gin­nings and en­dings, and rest­ric­ted time pe­ri­ods, but we can ne­ver ful­ly comp­re­hend in­fi­ni­ty or end­less eter­ni­ty.

Text: Han­na-Ma­ria Jur­mu

Trans­la­ti­on: Sirk­ka-Lii­sa Lei­no­nen

You will find the ori­gi­nal blog post here.