Emphasis Preaching Journal

Foundation, base, cornerstone: structures of the universe. In the ancient world, the universe was viewed as constructed in three stories, simple and easy to comprehend. There was the foundation, the deep under-pilings that supported the entire structure. Upon the foundation (whether pictured as pillars or a turtle or an elephant), was the earth, a table top upon which life teemed. Over the earth was the sky, the heavens, the abode of the divine, from which light and the rains came forth to sustain life on the earth.

Today, our view of the universe isn't so "storied." It is a bit more complex. Following the discoveries and insights of astronomers using advanced technologies, we view the universe as an extensively expanding reality from a central point. At first there was light gathered together in one "place" (a ball of radiant energy, if you will, "both picture and frame, both text and margin" as author Vincent Cronin describes it) with nothing beyond it. It exploded and spewed forth gas which in time coalesced into matter that then permutated into complex forms giving rise to sentient life.

The phenomenal pictures from the Hubble Telescope, catching the birth of stars out of the womb of gaseous clouds, bring the viewer to deep humility. Such may be the whirlwind out of which the voice of God rightly asks, "Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?"