A Mind-Expanding Truth

We sometimes read Scripture and miss details that, if contemplated, expand our minds almost to their limits.

For instance, Jeremiah tells us that God “has made the earth by His power, He has established the world by His wisdom, and has stretched out the heavens at His discretion” (Jeremiah 10:12). The earth, as special as it is, doesn’t compare to the heavens in scope, size, or spectacle. Many readers of Tomorrow’s World already understand that the Bible actually refers to three heavens: our planet’s atmosphere, outer space, and the spiritual dimension—the habitation of God.

Focusing on the second heaven and the celestial bodies it contains causes our minds to begin expanding. We understand that God’s creative wisdom is seen even in the smallest details of a single cell, but we also find it in the expansive majesty of the heavens. But how expansive is that majesty?

To answer this question, we should start with our solar system, consisting of everything influenced by the gravitational forces of the star at its center. To gain a perspective of our solar system, imagine a book with the sun on its front cover. To make this book more manageable, let’s shrink Earth to the thickness of a single sheet of paper (about half a millimeter).

In our book, there are approximately 4,550 “pages” from the Sun on the cover to Mercury alone. Between the Earth and the Sun, approximately 11,800 pages. From the cover to Mars, there are about 18,000 pages, and to Jupiter, about 61,000 pages. But from Jupiter on, the distances increase dramatically, until Pluto would be about 450,000 “pages” away from the Sun.

But even at the distance of this much-debated ninth “planet” of the Solar system, we are only a small fraction of the way! We could need as many as 1.18 pages to include the full distance from the sun to the outer Oort Cloud—the recognized edge of the solar system. This stack of over 1 billion pages would reach 366 miles into the sky, which would be taller than 66 Mt. Everests stacked on one another.

As impressive as that may seem, our solar system is an extremely tiny fraction of the Milky Way, the galaxy in which we exist. Some estimates say that to cross our solar system would take nearly three light years. Taking a galactic step back to measure the Milky Way’s stellar disk, we would find it to be about 100,000 light-years across. Our solar system, which filled nearly 2.4 billion pages in our imaginary book, only fills the barest fraction of a percent of the Milky Way galaxy (think of a decimal number three to four zeroes deep!).

Numbers so vast are nearly meaningless to us. “An estimate of the total number of galaxies has been extrapolated from very deep sky observations by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope and suggested there are about two trillion galaxies in the cosmos” (“New Horizons Spacecraft Answers Question: How Dark Is Space?,” Science.NASA.gov, January 13, 2021).

The magnitude of this second heaven is beyond the comprehension of mere mortals. Jeremiah’s declaration that God “has stretched out the heavens at His discretion” is a true stretch of our minds.

The Apostle Paul, describing the supremacy of Jesus Christ, wrote that “in Him all things consist” (Colossians 1:17). It is Jesus who has preeminence and authority over all things; He is the unifying principle and personal sustainer of all the universe. It is His sustaining power that upholds all creation (Hebrews 1:3). He maintains it all—all matter, all space, time, and all energy—by His power.

When trials and monotony of life seem endless, we can be encouraged by the fact that the God who called the universe into being by wise design—and maintains it—is fully competent to direct and sustain us, regardless of the obstacles we may encounter in life.

You can discover the most mind-expanding truth by reading our booklet What Is the Meaning of Life? Studying this guide reveals horizons never imagined by most of humankind throughout history. This booklet is free, and it can absolutely expand your mind to encompass God’s ultimate goal for you and the rest of humanity.