Wonder and Awe

Wonder and Awe

                        The Earth spins around its axis at the speed of 1,000 miles an hour at the equator.  To spin around once takes 23 hours, 56 minutes, and 4.1 seconds.  As we spin, we are also on another circular journey as we orbit around our sun.  Traveling at the speed of 66,000 miles an hour, this second journey takes 365 days, 6 hours, 9 minutes, and 9.54 seconds to complete.  In the annual pilgrimage around our great star we travel 595,000,000 miles.  And, as a member of a solar family composed of the sun and with eight other planets and their moons, we are racing through space at 43,000 miles an hour!  In the space of one turnaround we travel a million miles outward into space in a gigantic path that spirals like a winding staircase.  Contemplation of these fact instill in most of us a since of wonder and the emotion of awe for the architect of creation.

            Since the beginning of time man has expressed words of worship when confronted with the awesomeness of the universe.  Countless ancient people and many still today have realized that they and the Earth are somehow part of the mystery of God.  Sacred – at one with Divine Mystery – is our tiny earthen vessel.  Sacred, too, are the billions of stars, planets, comets, and other creations that travel together through the Universe.  The awesomeness of it all buries deep within each person a God seed, a compass and map of our final destination. The wonder and awe of creation; the wonder and awe of contemplating an ever expanding universe constantly casting outward newly created, wondrously beautiful, full of unexplored galaxies should fill one’s heart with praise of the Creator.  

And yet sadly, some among us see all this wonder as a mere accident … a random event without meaning.  How can that be?

            There is an ancient Sioux Indian prayer which says:  When you arise in the morning, give thanks for your life and your strength. Give thanks for your food and give thanks for the joy of living.  And if you see no reason for giving thanks, rest assured the fault is in yourself.

To see creation and not a Creator

is to be blinded by one’s own arrogance;

to believe in nothing greater than oneself

is to think of ourselves as the center of universe.